


Way Down Deep Where The Shadows Are Heavy

by AndreaLyn



Series: Howling [3]
Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: F/M, M/M, Mating Cycles/In Heat, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 07:42:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 28,185
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6461722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AndreaLyn/pseuds/AndreaLyn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With a new threat looming in Hawaii and Steve and Danny out of commission, Kono and the rest of the team are left to hold down the fort. On the to-do list includes figuring out why the skies and oceans are looking extra apocalyptic, why Lori Weston is in town, and how to fix the impending end of the world via Yakuza coven, all while Danny and Steve work through an inconvenient heat cycle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Way Down Deep Where The Shadows Are Heavy

**Author's Note:**

> [pterawaters](http://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters) provided the art component of this Big Bang in the form of an incredible playlist that you can find [here](http://archiveofourown.org/works/6452935).
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> This story is the third in my _Howling_ series, but you can read it without the rest so long as you know three things: Danny's an immortal, Steve's a werewolf, and Chin was turned into a vampire by Victor Hesse. Thanks bunches and bunches to ibyshire, who is the best beta a girl could ask for.

“Yes, sir. It was an okay flight, but I think I could have used more than stale pretzels as a meal.” The woman’s smile was wry as she shifted her phone against her ear while adjusting her grip of her carry-on. “I suppose I could have expensed them, but I know you’d just make me fill out all the paperwork,” the woman said to the caller on the other end of the phone as she stepped out from the airport’s arrival gates.

The minute she was outside, it was impossible to miss the churning clouds in the sky reflecting unnatural colors in the sky for this time of day, year, and reality.

“I could feel something off the minute we started our approach into Oahu. There’s definitely something at play here.” She paused long enough to shift the phone to her shoulder and hail a cab. “I’ll make contact with the local enforcement agency and bring them in.”

She stepped forward to load her bag into a cab, faltering slightly.

“Five Oh? Are you sure that’s a good idea given their reputation in supernatural circles?” she asked warily. “Sir, yes, sir,” she confirmed. “I’ll check in when I have something to report.”

“Where to, miss?” the cab driver asked as she climbed into the backseat.

“The Palace,” she replied, her eyes still drawn to the powerful sky.

“Strange weather, isn’t it?”

She could feel the way the island was churning around her, knocking her off balance. She hadn’t felt anything like this in her whole life and she had the feeling that facing whatever was responsible was going to be the hardest thing she’d ever done. “You have no idea.”

* * *

Steve woke up feeling like he’d been sucker-punched by a lunar tide. He hadn’t felt like this since he’d been a new wolf and had been adjusting to the change, but for a week now, he’d felt like he’d been run over by a semi. Stubbornly, he’d refused to visit a doctor, because werewolf medical care wasn’t exactly known for its success rates and besides, most illnesses just left his system eventually.

“I want it on record that you’re an idiot,” Danny announced as he fluffed a new pillow to jam behind Steve’s head. He was taking to angry nursemaiding like it was an Olympic sport that he was entitled to the gold in.

Steve groaned as he sat up, eyes now aligned to stare out the window to the sea. “There’s no record, Danno.”

“Oh, yes, yes there is, I started a record,” Danny retorted. “It’s a big three-hundred page book by now and it’s filled to the brim with all the stupid things you’ve ever done. Page three hundred and one, apparently, is the one where you’re too stupid to go see a doctor even though you’re feeling worse than ever.”

“Danny…”

“I mean, I get that you’re a werewolf and you have weird immune systems that bleed out infections when you shift, but what if it’s some canine disease, huh? I mean, if this is fleas…”

“Danny!” Steve shouted.

“What!” Danny shouted back at him, their conversation now having hit the decibel level that made Steve so infinitely glad that their neighbors lived the distance away that they did. “What is it?”

“Look at the ocean,” Steve prompted. He wanted to get closer to investigate, but he honestly felt like all the energy was being drained from his body, leeching him dry. Still, it didn’t take any energy for him to see the way that the tides were no longer lapping against the sand, but were rolling out towards the sea’s horizon, like a beacon was pulling them back.

Even Danny had to admit that it was a good enough reason to stop calling Steve an idiot for a few seconds. “I’ll call Chin and make sure he’s on it, but I’m also calling Rachel,” he warned. “You don’t want to see a doctor? Fine. Then I’m calling the one woman who’s seen every goddamn supernatural and human plague of the last few thousand years.”

“You still don’t actually know how old she is,” Steve felt inclined to remind Danny.

“Yeah, because every time I bring it up, she gets that look in her eye that makes me think she’s two seconds away from taking off my head and absorbing all my life energy. Which, by the way, if that ever happens and I’m left without a head, I want you to wolf out and tear the fucker’s throat out, Rachel or no Rachel.”

“Put it in the will,” Steve mumbled, wishing he had the energy to stare at the weird pattern of the ocean, but he genuinely couldn’t find the energy to keep his eyes open. Whatever was happening to him was starting to get frightening. Maybe this was some strange after-effect of his brush with a siren, but he had a bad feeling this was something new and completely unconnected to that.

This felt deeper. It was like some part of him was waking up and realizing it was slotted in wrong. It made Steve itch like his body was fighting against some part of himself. Maybe something was wrong with him.

“Go into the office.” Steve pushed at Danny when he seemed ready to climb back into bed with him. His baser instincts warred against his practical ones. Sending Danny away when Steve wanted the warmth and security of his mate was making him feel uneasy and rough, but practicality had to win out right now. They had jobs to do and Steve couldn’t put his personal needs above the island’s well-being.

“Keep the door open and I’ll let Rachel up when she gets here.”

Danny seemed like he wanted to leave about as much as Steve wanted him to go, but Steve gestured toward the ocean to make his point.

“Danno, if this is the apocalypse, we’re all dead, wolf sickness or no,” he said.

“Fine,” Danny huffed out, leaning over to press a kiss to Steve’s lips, caught for a second when Steve wrapped his hand around Danny’s neck to hold him in place, refusing to let go until he got another kiss. “If you’re dead before I get home, I’m gonna figure out how to get into the afterlife and drag you back. You got that?”

“I don’t doubt you,” Steve promised. “Go.”

Watching Danny leave was harder than he expected it to be, but afforded Steve the time to really start to worry. The sky was starting to look unnatural, the ocean was receding out to some unknown place, and he was starting to feel like his body was on fire and he could barely move. Something was going on and he had no idea what it was.

And if there was one thing he’d learned over his many centuries, it was that Steve really, really didn’t like not knowing things.

* * *

In Kono’s opinion, she had seen way too much supernatural weirdness in her life for anything to surprise her, and yet, here she was being surprised all over again. If she were like Jenna, maybe she’d find this exciting, but as it was, she just got uneasy. When she’d gone to the North Shore that morning, a few determined surfers had tried getting out there, but for the most part, people were meeting on the beach while the tsunami warnings flared because they had nothing better to warn people. No one knew what to make of it and for an island as rife with supernaturals as Hawaii, that got a little scary.

“This is crazy, right?” Jenna asked, flicking her fingers through the blinds to stare up at the clouds as they started to form odd funnels of pink and green. “I mean, I’ve been doing research and there’s never been any mention of weird weather patterns accompanied by the sea doing this. Well,” she corrected herself, “that’s a lie, but in order for that account to be true, we’d have to believe in gods. Greek gods, specifically,” she said. “And I don’t know that I’m ready to believe that there’s some version of Poseidon doing this to the sea and skies.”

“Something is going on,” Chin agreed, listing on his desk as his skin took on an even graver pallor. Ever since he’d been turned into a vampire, he’d struggled to maintain whatever tan he could, but he looked as if he had the flu. Kono kept throwing him wary looks, unsure what to think about this. “Where’re Danny and Steve?”

With timing so perfect that Kono suspected Danny had been lingering outside and waiting for the right opportunity, he wandered into the office, announcing that, “Steve’s bed-ridden with something that I’m beginning to suspect is Wolf Flu. You don’t look so hot either,” he said, tapping Chin’s cheek with his fingers. “Did you get your blood this morning?”

“And here I thought you being mated to Steve meant he got all your mothering,” Chin deadpanned. “Yes, Danny. I ate breakfast.”

Kono gave Danny a brief smile as he joined them, watching as he took a seat opposite Kono on the other desk, his shoulder pressed against Jenna’s as he stared out the window. “I’m centuries old. I get mothering privileges for all of you,” he warned, but his heart didn’t seem in it. “Did you know the ocean started going backwards? Let’s just chalk that up to one more reason I’m not swimming anytime soon.”

“What’s causing this?” Jenna asked, sounding frustrated beyond the pale.

“I think maybe I can help with that,” said a new voice by the entrance.

The entire team turned as one to take in the blonde woman standing in the doorway, a suitcase trailing behind her.

“And you are?” Danny asked, sliding off the desk to approach her. Clearly, she wasn’t an immortal because Danny wasn’t getting that tense stance he usually had when another one was around. To Kono, she didn’t exactly look like a vampire or fae or anything other than a mortal woman, but Kono knew enough to keep her suspicions in check.

You never knew what someone could be hiding these days.

“Lori Weston,” she introduced herself, digging out her badge in order to show off her credentials. “I’m here from Washington DC to investigate a high level breach in the international coven laws.” She took a step closer to point out the window. “That? That’s someone on the island abusing power and doing what shouldn’t be done.”

Kono looked her over, assessing her to figure out whether she could take her in a hand to hand fight, if you took magic out of the equation. “So you’re a witch?” Kono asked, crossing her arms over her chest, mistrust starting to swim into her judgment simply because she hadn’t really personally worked with witches before and didn’t know what to expect.

“Yes,” Lori confirmed. “I was sent here by the leader of our coven to investigate on behalf of the national government.”

Kono never knew why witches seemed to gravitate towards roles in government and she’d always wondered if it was the job that drew them, or their placement in covens and their power that got them the job. The most experience they’d had was with the Governor’s aide, Laura, who belonged to one of the local covens.

“Do you know who?” Kono asked, wondering if they’d already come into contact with the perps on an older case.

“We have our suspicions,” Lori confirmed. “And I can promise that it’s not simple, which is why I’m here to ask for help.” She stuck out her hand in no one’s particular direction, standing there awkwardly. “Sorry. I jumped right into the doom and gloom when I should have done proper introductions.”

“Except I’m guessing you probably know all about us,” Chin pointed out wryly, mirroring Kono’s stance as he came to stand right beside her.

“I’d be a terrible profiler if I didn’t,” Lori admitted. “Chin Ho Kelly, newly turned vampire. Your blood supplier is probably charging you more than you should be paying and cutting your supply with animal blood. I’d look into that. And you’re Jenna,” she said, turning to the woman in question. “You came here to investigate the potential existence of spirits and wound up staying after the investigation turned up empty-handed.”

Jenna raised her brow, glancing at Danny in the same way Kono felt like doing, because Lori’s gaze was swiveling around to him. It was like battening down for a hurricane. Kono could already see Danny starting to bristle, his hand moving to his sword.

“Daniel Williams,” she said. “Seventh oldest immortal in the United States, twenty-ninth oldest immortal in the world.”

“Do you know my ERA too?” Danny replied, but it almost sounded like this was the first he was hearing about this. “I mean, the stalker thing is kind of scary, but Steve’s gotten me kind of used to it. I’d tell you that he’s a wolf and my mate, but I’m pretty sure you know that too.”

Lori narrowed her eyes, like she was trying to put some piece of a puzzle together. “Full wolf?” she echoed, exhaling a ‘huh’ and shrugging. “And Kono Kalakaua,” she finished, turning to Kono. “I hear that you’re the best shot on this island.” Lori glanced at the group and then turned back to Kono. “I think you’re going to be the best person to investigate this.”

“What, I’m chopped liver? And Chin, what, is he no good?” Danny retorted.

“Not good enough,” Lori agreed. “Here,” she said, tossing a USB to Chin. “Load that up and I’ll explain.”

Chin slowly made his way off the desk and Kono hurried to his side to slide an arm around his waist, more than a little concerned about the way he looked. “Hey,” Kono murmured quietly. “Are you okay?”

“Apart from being unwillingly turned into a vampire and being reminded of that every time I get a hankering for blood instead of a shave ice? I’m not feeling so hot,” Chin said, trying to muster up a smile as best as he could. “I’m hoping whatever Lori’s tracking down means it goes away once we deal with it.”

“What does it feel like?” Kono asked quietly as Jenna and Lori talked, Danny idled like the big ball of stress he always was, and Chin loaded up the USB into the table.

Chin took a moment to consider, like he had to actually weigh out what he was feeling to properly describe it. “Like something is slowly taking me apart, piece by piece, and separating it like a centrifuge,” he said. “I can’t explain it, but it feels like everything is wrong. You don’t feel this?” Chin asked Danny.  
  
“One of the first things I learned?” Danny replied, keeping it quiet and between them. “Whatever supernatural laws govern wolves and vampires don’t really bleed into the immortal community. I mean, don’t get me wrong, we’ve got some poisoning of the well issues of our own, but it’s usually internal. I don’t think this has to do with immortals.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Lori agreed, having overheard their conversation. “We’ve assembled research that indicates a local coven has started to manipulate fate and fortune in order to turn it to their will. It’s likely for money, prosperity, and a number of things that shouldn’t be possible under the normal laws of the universe. Given Officer Kelly’s condition, I’d say that they’ve conducted several dark spells involving vampire blood.”

Danny had a look on his face like Lori’s words were solving another puzzle for him, but he didn’t seem ready to share. While Kono had caught the look on his face, she didn’t feel like prying. There would be time to go into it later.

“Okay, so we take them down,” Kono said, glancing around the room as she tried to search for the catch. “We’ve dealt with worse. How do you stop a coven?”

“Not just a coven,” Lori said, gesturing to the screen as dozens of files began to load, displaying the mug shots of several of the most wanted men in the world. “The Yakuza,” she said darkly.

“The Yakuza is a coven?” Jenna piped up, having been silently absorbing everything. “That … actually explains a lot,” she said. “This is probably half the reason they’re so protected.”

“So, what? They amped up their game?” Danny asked. “And now they’re dipping their toe into the off-limits place?”

“There’s a reason that all covens are mandated to follow the rules. It’s not just to keep everyone on an even playing field. As you can see, it’s starting to tear the world apart. It’s happened before and it usually goes hand in hand with some big tragedy. Vesuvius, the big San Francisco earthquake, and some coven historians are pretty quick to blame the Black Plague on misconduct of magic.”

“And here I thought the rules for immortals were complicated,” Danny muttered into his palm. “Okay, so, how do we take down not only the mob, but a magical mob. I’m guessing a couple of wands and pointy hats aren’t going to do the trick?”

“No,” Lori confirmed. “We need to find out who’s at the centre of this. The likelihood of the whole coven being involved in illicit castings is slim to nil, which means that it will be much easier to take out one or two targets than the whole group.”

“And what?” Chin demanded warily. “Leave the rest of them to pick up where they left off?”

“I’m primarily concerned with what Denning wants me to solve. That’s the misuse of coven skills,” Lori replied coolly, clearly not ruffled by the daggers Chin was glaring at her with. “I have no jurisdiction on this island. What you do with the rest of them is up to you, but I’m promising you that getting to the bottom of this and solving it permanently is going to be hard enough.”

“So, you want us to ferret out someone who’s got an insane amount of power at their fingertips,” Danny summed up. “Great. And here I thought Steve’s wolf-fluenza was the worst thing I had to deal with today.”

“I’ve set up a meeting on neutral ground with some of the high-ranking officers of the Yakuza,” Lori said. “I was able to trade in on some of the trust between our covens. Kono, I want you to come with me as a show of good faith. I need to prove to them that I’m not bringing a threat; not one that they can recognize in plain sight, at least,” Lori said, offering Kono a complimentary smile.

Kono knew that she was being pandered to, but at the same time, she couldn’t help but feel a little bit of delight at being so highly valued (because when you worked with as many supernatural beings as she did, sometimes you felt a little underwhelmed by your contributions to the world). Chin didn’t look nearly as happy, given the glower on his face, and she knew she was due to hear an overprotective cousin rant soon.

Might as well get it over now.

“Sounds good,” she said cheerfully. “I’ll be ready in an hour. Chin, can I talk to you?” she managed to sound perfectly calm and sweet as she hooked Chin with an arm under his shoulder, forcibly dragging him away from where he looked pretty damn close to flashing fang at Lori. She yanked him into her office and closed the blinds behind her, knowing Danny would tease them to death later, but she was willing to cope. “What the hell?”

“The Yakuza, Kono,” Chin said. “Even without powerful magic, this is a bad, bad idea.”

“How is it different from any other dangerous case we’ve had to look into?” she challenged, her hands on her hips. “That dragon? The shapeshifter who took over half the police force? Chin, I love you and you’re _ohana_ , but you’ve got to stop treating me like I’m still your fifteen year old kid cousin,” she pleaded. “Especially now that things are so different. You’re going to live forever now. You really shouldn’t waste all these years worrying about me,” she said, eyes widening with a glare as he opened his mouth to speak, “ _especially_ when I can handle myself!”

He seemed to let her words sink in, which gave Kono hope that he’d actually listened. “I don’t like it,” he said finally.

“You don’t have to like it,” she replied quietly. “But you can come and be my back-up. You just have to let me do this. I may only be human, but you heard the lady out there. _Best shot on the island,_ ” she said, grinning with a cocky edge that she was putting on for show.

Deep down, she was scared, too. For the most part, they left the Yakuza alone because it was a high profile target with a lot of power. Now that she knew it was a coven, she could only imagine the power it was hiding within its ranks.

Still, someone had to break their way in. And she was itching for a good challenge.

“I’m not letting you go out there on your own,” Chin said.

“Good,” Kono replied. “Someone’s going to have to tell everyone the story of how awesome I was.”

She knew that she’d won him over when Chin cracked a smile. She wrapped her arm around his and leaned in against his cool body, trying to ignore the flash of guilt and sadness that always overwhelmed her when she thought about what had happened to him.

“Come on, it’s just recon,” Kono promised. “Lori will set up a meeting and I’ll work my magic. I’ve got to dust it off sometime,” she said, using a feigned smile to hide any of those lingering fears she was carrying around.

She could face a powered-up magical Yakuza, right?

What member of Five-0 couldn’t?

* * *

Steve woke to the sound of the doorbell ringing, but there was no way he was physically capable of getting up to let them in. Lucky for him (and unlucky at the same time), Rachel had made herself a key to his place the minute Danny had moved in and had let herself in by the time Steve managed to sit up.  
  
She stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips, the light shining off the scabbard of her sword, and the most judgmental look he’d ever seen on a person’s face since Danny had left this morning.

“Daniel was right,” she said calmly. “You are an idiot.”

“Hi Rachel,” Steve replied, wearily letting himself collapse back on the bed. His skin was starting to prickle with heat and he felt like he was peaking about 103 Fahrenheit without trying. He’d come to accept that mating with Danny meant that Rachel was going to be a part of their lives, and she did come in handy, given the wealth of knowledge she always had on the supernatural.

Right now, though, Steve wanted her to go away so he could plunge his head into cool water and try and forget the world existed. He debated asking her to get a bucket of ice and dump it on him, but had the suspicion that she wasn’t going to humor him like that.

“Your heart is racing,” she diagnosed as she perched on the bed beside him, “and I can tell that you’re feverish beyond any healthy measure. Let me guess,” she said, peering into his eyes, “you’re feeling a terrible itch that you can’t place and you have no idea what’s causing it?”

He furrowed his brow, trying to prod her into telling him how she knew.

“You keep trying to scratch something and abort at the last moment,” she said, prying a moleskin notebook and a small quill from her back pocket. “I need to ask you several questions, Steve, and some of them are going to sound strange. I need you to promise me that you’re going to be honest about all of them.”

He nodded, blinking past the strange ring of light he was looking through – that, if he knew better, vaguely resembled the amber ring that encircled his eyes when he shifted into the wolf. “Anything but Danny’s favorite position,” he tried to joke.

“Cowgirl,” was her calm reply, not even glancing up from the notebook. “What year were you turned?”

“1824,” Steve replied, feeling like he should feel awkward about the fact that Rachel was dipping a cloth absently in cool water and dabbing it over his forehead in between notations. “Why does this…”

“And your father turned you?”

“Yes.”

“And you turned your sister,” Rachel confirmed, with one final jot and scribble of her pen. She already knew this. Danny had already told her, of that Steve was completely certain. “Right. And your mother?”

“Died when I was younger. I thought she might have become a spirit, but that was before I knew better.”

“How?”

Steve glanced up at Rachel through his heated eyes, not sure if it was the fever making him thick or whether she was deliberately asking him vague questions. At least Danny wasn’t around to witness and tease him for it. “What?” he asked, after another few moments of struggling to understand what she was asking.

“How did she die? I need to know if this is genetic,” Rachel said.

“We don’t actually know how she died,” Steve admitted, furrowing his brow. “Our father thought that he’d killed her, but he has no proof. He was the wolf one night and she was gone the next morning, but he didn’t remember blood or anything else. You think she could have passed on something that only hit almost two hundred years later?”

Rachel hummed, not bothering to actually answer. “Have you had Max run a chronology report on you?” she asked. “How old are you in human years, when you take the wolf ageing out of the equation? And what age were you when turned?”

“Thirty two when I was turned. Thirty-six now and I’ll be thirty-seven soon,” he said once he did the math. He knew that meant he’d only spent four years of the last nearly two hundred in his wolf form when it came down to it, but he didn’t think that was odd. Mary shifted even less than he did and she didn’t seem to be experiencing any of these issues.

He’d made sure to call her the minute he’d accepted that whatever he was feeling wasn’t natural. In his mind, that ruled out this being something to do with the family tree.

“Most wolves I’ve met spend roughly one year out of ten as a wolf,” Rachel said as she continued to make notes. “I’m surprised you haven’t felt more symptoms before this. And Mary? She’s fine?”

“She’s younger than I am,” Steve replied roughly. “But yeah, she’s fine.”

“Odd,” Rachel noted, closing her book and crossing her legs as she turned her full attention to mopping the sweat from Steve’s brow. “Generally, wolves that don’t spend enough time under the moon begin to go mad roughly fifty years after their initial change. Of course, there are exceptions, though very rarely seen within the same pack.”

“Are you saying Mary and I are wrong?” Steve challenged.

Rachel turned that keen, all-knowing gaze on him, and in that moment, Steve began to understand why Danny could be so unnerved and frightened by this woman. She was ageless and she was terrifying. Steve could honestly believe that she’d been around long enough to see the Romans in rule and the empires clawing for land.

“I’m suspicious of your lineage,” Rachel said. “Yes, Steve. You and Mary are very, very wrong. You both should have gone mad years ago. However, I don’t think that has anything to do with your current troubles.” She sat up just a touch straighter, looking proud and pleased with herself.

It was a look he’d seen on Danny one too many times and now he knew where it came from. He knew that she and Danny had spent centuries together, but seeing it in a shared expression was almost too much for Steve to handle right now.

“Are you going to give me your diagnosis, Dr. Edwards?” Steve wearily asked, wanting to slip back to sleep.

She checked her platinum-banded watch, eyes intent on the second hand before she looked back to Steve and then craned her head to look at the ever-changing sky. “The good news is that you’re going to be perfectly fine. You’re a healthy werewolf, even if that’s inexplicable given your switching habits, and you’re going to come out of this no worse for the wear.”

No one ever launched into ‘the good news’ without holding back some of the bad.

“And?” he prodded, ready to bring that on and deal with it.

“The bad news,” Rachel said, tapping the face of her watch, “is that in approximately the next twenty-four to thirty-six hours, you’re going to go into full heat. Generally, it happens once every five years of ageing, but you didn’t mate until several centuries had passed which may have delayed the instinct somewhat. Did your father never explain this to you?”

“My father didn’t explain a lot of things,” Steve replied, slightly muffled with embarrassment. “How’s this going to work?” He didn’t exactly love the idea of having this conversation with Danny’s ex, but given that she seemed to be the expert at the moment, he also didn’t see how he had a choice.

“First of all, we’re going to have to brief Daniel. You’re going to have your wits about you for roughly the next eighteen hours, but then you’re going to become a tad feral. Having your mate close to you will help,” Rachel advised as she continued to mop his brow. “It will be an arduous process and it’s recommended that you spend any time during the heat not copulating in your wolf form. It will help the healing and should keep your mind from splintering. I’ll have to bring some healing salves for when you knot.”

“Knot?” Steve echoed, knowing enough about wolves from his research to know what she meant, but he was having a little trouble coming to terms with all of this. The idea that his body was going to do something brand new after two centuries was kind of difficult to deal with.

“Your body and brain don’t know Danny can’t make you an heir,” Rachel pointed out. “He’ll cope with it and probably curse up a storm the likes of which could give the current sky a run for its money. I will say, your body has some inopportune timing. I have to wonder if there isn’t some other magic in your veins tied to this witchy business.”

“How do you know it’s witches?” Steve asked.

He was given a dubious look in response, as if he shouldn’t have been so stupid as to ask that question. _Right_ , he thought. _Don’t poke the millennia old immortal by asking how she knows her information._ Steve wasn’t exactly in a state to capitalize on the information, but it was a good thing he had an office full of people who would.

“So Danny and I are out of commission,” Steve interpreted. “How long?”

“If you’re lucky, this will run its’ course in roughly three days’ time. If you’re unlucky, this could take all of a week,” Rachel said, folding the cloth neatly and setting it alongside the water on the side of the table. “I cannot stress enough that it’s important for you to take this seriously and to lean on Danny as an anchor. You may lose touch with your human side and with reality,” she warned. “I’ve seen wolves go mad in their heat before. Don’t let that happen to you, Steve. I’ve grown to tolerate you and I believe Danny even likes you a little,” she joked.

“Only on Fridays,” Steve managed a weak laugh in turn. “Hey, Rachel?”

“Mm?”

“Thanks,” he said, from the bottom of his heart. “You help us out a lot and I don’t know if we say thank you enough.”

“It seems you’ve learned to start,” Rachel replied. “I’ll call Danny and have him come meet you here as soon as he can. I’ll drop by the office and brief Miss Kaye and Chin on the threat they’re dealing with. I can’t tell you who at this point, but I do have a good idea as to what’s causing it.”

Steve mumbled out another quiet ‘thanks’, his mind still running in circles around the bombshell she’d dropped on him. Long after she’d let herself out, Steve was still lost in two very distinct and frightening thoughts.

 _What’s wrong with me?_ was the first and foremost, but right alongside it was, _How the hell are we going to get through this?_

Then again, it wasn’t like he had a choice.

* * *

“Chin, I’m in position. Do you copy?” Kono made sure to keep her back to the warehouse, trying to keep her position a secret as she and Lori prepared themselves for their little field trip into the lion’s den. It had taken them ages to get here, fighting past the chaotic mess of traffic seeing as everyone on the island seemed keen to get out of their cars and gape at the strange sky. Lori watched her expectantly and Kono tried not to let the expectations weigh her down.

She had to treat this like an everyday assignment, or she was going to drive herself crazy.

“I’ve got you both in my sights,” Chin replied back over the radio. Lori had expressed her disapproval of using radios, but Chin had stood his ground, declaring that unless Kono had a clear way to communicate, she wasn’t going in.

For once, she had to agree with Chin’s overprotective urge, because walking into the Yakuza’s local headquarters without back-up seemed like a stupid idea that even she wouldn’t have come up with on her worst day. “Ready?”

“Follow my lead when we get in there,” Lori advised. “I’ve already made contact and had them bring a few of their key players in.”

“Who are we meeting up with?”

“Hiro Noshimuri has been removed from the organization, leaving his sons as the new leaders. Michael and Adam will be meeting with us, along with several of their top officers. I asked them to bring their spell caster along, but I don’t think we’ll be that lucky.” Lori cast one last look up towards the sky, the anxiety showing in the press of her lips before it was gone. “In the vein of good faith, I can’t cast while we’re in there, but that doesn’t stop you or Chin from taking a shot, if you have to.”

“Here’s hoping good conversation is all we’re going to need,” Kono said, trying to be positive. She adjusted the holster and unclipped it before they walked in, just in case.

Anyone who could manipulate the earth and disturb the sea and sky was someone you wanted to be prepared for. Not to mention she had the feeling that they were just getting started and the island was in for a lot worse than this.

Lori nodded for Kono to follow, and as soon as Kono entered the warehouse (it was supposed to be a production factory for cigars, but she knew better than to judge this book by its cover) she could feel tension seep into her bones and grab her tight.

“They said to go to their office,” Lori murmured, holding onto Kono’s wrist loosely as they wandered closely together, both of them keeping a wary eye on the workers they passed because any one of them might know more than a regular factory worker should. Kono could feel the energy around her start to sizzle and crack, like lightning from a storm coming down on them.

Sometimes, when she thought that she was tired of being the resident ‘normal’ (outside of Jenna, who had such an encyclopedic knowledge of the world that she sometimes seemed supernatural herself), she thought about Chin and his need for blood, or Steve’s issues with his wolf, or Danny’s long run alone before he met the people he cared about and reminded herself that power didn’t equal an easy life.

Then there were times like this, when she walked into a charged room and she was reminded of all the dangerous things that came of too much power in the same place. She kept her gaze focused forward, not letting anything psych her out. She reminded herself that she’d faced much worse before and besides, she had a witch beside her and she had Chin backing her up. Not to mention that she had a pretty quick trigger finger and a bullet was faster than a spell, most of the time.

Lori nudged her forward and Kono inhaled sharply to get herself ready for the meeting.

She walked into the room to see a familial tableau. Sitting down were the Noshimuri boys. They were clearly in a position of power, but only one of them seemed to thrive on it. From the intel she’d gathered, Kono assumed that to be Michael, given that he had always been the one who sought out accolades. The other was Adam, and he looked exhausted and stressed. He looked _guilty_ and Kono zoomed in on that instantly, knowing that she could work with that. Surrounding them was the cache of security that would make sure nothing happened here without their say-so.

She sized up the three large men standing with their weapons out and tried to figure out who was the power here. She kept watching them as she took a step towards the Noshimuri boys and watched as the guards subtly gravitated more towards Michael.

At least now she had an idea as to who they’d protect first and foremost.

Still, she was almost more interested in Adam, who didn’t seem like he wanted to be here. He kept avoiding eye contact and shifted enough that she knew without a single word being spoken that he had something to hide.

“Gentlemen,” Lori spoke, finally breaking the ice. “I’m Agent Weston and this is Kono…”

“One of Five-0’s dogs, we know,” Michael responded instantly.

“I prefer ‘officer of the law’,” Kono replied coolly, taking small pride in the smile she earned out of Adam for that. She told herself not to keep focusing on him, but her eye kept drawing there and she couldn’t help but feel something like a connection. Maybe it was just that in a room full of criminals, he seemed like a halfway decent guy. And okay, so there was the part where she found him pretty damn attractive.

 _Kono?_ That was Chin, worry in the way he said her name. _Your heart rate just doubled. What’s going on?_

“We’re not here to cause trouble,” Kono said, trying to calm Chin down without giving away that she was communicating to someone on the outside through an earpiece. “We thought you might be worried about what’s happening on the island.”

“We thought you might want to help,” Lori took over for Kono and turned a pointed look on all of the men, though she (like Kono) had figured out fairly quickly that there were only two important men in this room and the chances were that either Michael or Adam was casting the spell.

Kono felt like either of them could do it, but only one seemed like they wanted to. She knew she ought to be paying attention to Michael, but instead she let her focus gravitate to Adam, hoping that Lori would pay attention to the other brother for her.

“What makes you think we care?” Adam asked, voice subdued and quiet.

“I think you care what happens to this island,” Kono replied. “I think someone cares enough to have taken this meeting with us. Maybe you just wanted to see who was curious about you, but I don’t think that’s it. Whatever is happening out there isn’t so small that it’s only affecting some of us. This could bring the islands down.” She realized, belatedly, that she was directly addressing Adam and not his brother and she came back to herself, realizing that she hadn’t acted like this since…

Well, not since her last embarrassing crush, which was not to be spoken about – _ever_.

She steeled her resolve and reminded herself that finding Adam Noshimuri _cute_ was completely outside of the scope of what she was doing there.

At least, that was the rational and logical thought. Her brain ignored her despite her best attempts to get back on track. They had bigger issues to contend and she had the bad feeling that they weren’t going to get anywhere with this group, seeing as most of them seemed pleased at their level of distress.

“What if we think this is a good change?” Michael challenged.

“You’re wrong,” Lori calmly replied, with steel behind her words. “What you’re doing can undo the fabric of everything. You might think you’re in control…”

“Haole,” Michael snapped at Lori, the air around them bubbling with more tension and the unmistakable sensation of the temperature starting to climb. “Don’t you come in here and tell us that we don’t know what we’re doing. We’re plenty aware. Maybe you don’t like it, but we know.”

He glanced up to his men, over to Adam with barely veiled disdain, and then back to the two women.

“We’re done here,” he said dismissively with a flick of his wrist. “Whatever you were after, keep looking. You won’t find it here.”   
  
Kono braced herself, tensing up for an attack, but nothing happened. She looked to Lori, who nodded her head to give her the okay to leave. “Don’t worry,” Kono promised. “I never give up.”

She ignored the slanderous mutters behind her back as she and Lori left the warehouse.

“All clear?” she heard Chin’s voice in her ear.

“Clear,” she agreed as she pried out the earpiece and set it in her pocket. Her jaw felt tense from holding it tightly, frustrated with not being able to make any progress in talking them down. “What do we do now?”

“It’s obvious that Michael Noshimuri is the mastermind behind this, but I think his brother is the one casting,” Lori said. “I don’t know what his brother has on him, but it must be something pretty intense. He looked like he wanted to be anywhere else.”

Kono felt swimming relief that she wasn’t the only one who noticed that Adam didn’t seem as bad as his brother, but reminded herself that she wasn’t supposed to feel grateful about criminals, especially ones that might be turning the fabric of space and time inside out. “Okay, so, we get him out of there?”

“Can I leave that with you?” Lori asked. “Best case scenario, we get him out of there and no one has enough power to keep his spells going.”

“And the worst case scenario?”

“That’s the phone call I’m about to make to Denning, just in case we have to plan to go to war.”

Kono swallowed back the bitter taste in her mouth at the thought of Oahu being in the middle of a magical turf war between two opposing covens, not to mention whatever other supernatural beings got dragged into this. She knew there was a good chance that a lot of people were going to get hurt and she had no idea of how to minimize the damage.

All she had was a task.

Get to Adam Noshimuri. Get him out of his brother’s grasp.

While she was at it, try her best to prevent a war.

“No sweat,” Kono replied, fake-cheerfully as she plastered a smile on her face. Performing the impossible was becoming pretty normal in her line of work. Maybe when Steve was feeling better, she’d ask him for a raise for danger pay.

At this point, she’d settle for one good month without a supernatural catastrophe.

* * *

Steve was doing his best to keep track of the hours that had passed. Rachel told him he had less than two days before the worst of it hit and he didn’t know what to expect, so he’d started to build up disaster scenarios in his head. The more he thought about them, the more they seemed to seep into becoming halfway towards reality and the trouble with having no one else around was Steve not being able to see what was real and what had been skewed – like his sense of time, for one.

It couldn’t have been more than two hours since Rachel had left. She’d gone to the office to pass along her knowledge before telling Danny that he needed to get home. Between travel time and Jenna’s likely barrage of questions, it would probably be a while before she could Danny alone to pass on the order that he had to get home.

That made it perfectly reasonable that he hadn’t made it home yet, but Steve couldn’t help worrying through the bond connection, tugging on the little string that connected him to Danny, as if he could bring him home faster. Their connection was still a tentative thing, with scarred edges still healing after their dealings with the siren, but they were making headway on repairing it.

The whole ‘doubting reality’ thing wasn’t helped by the fact that he was starting to hear voices that belonged to people who couldn’t possibly be there. “You’ve got yourself in a real jam, haven’t you, Steve?” came one of them, like a ghost in his ear.

There was no possible way this could be real, because that voice belonged to John McGarrett, and his father had been dead for years. Steve’s vision started to swim and the room around him glowed and pulsed, his sense of smell guiding him better than his eyes at this point in time.

“Dad,” Steve breathed out, trying to chase away the ghost in the room.

“You should have known better. You should have spent more time with your wolf, then you wouldn’t be in this situation.”

Except, then Steve might have had to temporarily mate with the next closest body in order to get himself through his heat. The thought of being with anyone but Danny made him recoil with horror, half shocked by how much he didn’t want to think about that. The only man he could imagine being with was Danny.

No one else, not ever.

“You’re dead, Dad.”

“Just because I may be a spirit from beyond the grave doesn’t mean I can’t drop by to give my idiot pup some good advice.”

Before he could protest that spirits weren’t real, he was interrupted by someone else. “I’d listen to him,” came Mary’s wry voice. This one was harder. Steve didn’t think Mary was in town, which meant that he was _probably_ seeing her out of nowhere, but he also wouldn’t put it past Rachel or Danny to call his sister into town to deal with a wolf-related issue. Still, the way she shimmered in his line of sight didn’t bode well for reality. “Even I’ve been spending more time switched. And the whole thing with Mom, not knowing how she died? You seriously haven’t suspected?”

Great. Now his subconscious was turning on him and getting accusatory.

It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about his mother before. Maybe he had given up when it came to searching for an answer when the easiest one seemed to be right in front of him; during erratic and emotional shifts, wolves didn’t remember what happened and one morning, his mother was nowhere to be found after his father had shifted. The most logical, rational explanation was that his father had killed her.

Only, there had never been any body. And John hadn’t remembered. So what if, _what if_ his mother was still alive?

“Do you really believe that, Steve?”  
  
It was like a ghost coming out of the woodwork. It was a voice he didn’t even think he remembered. His mother was sitting in the corner of the room looking composed and calm, her hands folded over her legs and looking every bit the schoolteacher he recalled.

He hadn’t thought about his mother in nearly two years, but now here she was as clear a vision as ever. It was making Steve wonder about his sanity, and his doubts began to fray his conscious thoughts, making him wonder whether anything was real. Was John here? What if Mary was here?

What if his mother was honestly sitting _right there_?

“Mom, what are you?”

“I’d tell you if I could,” was her reply, at least answering one of Steve’s many questions.

She wasn’t real. She was just a manifestation of the questions he’d started to have, and with the heat seeping into his brain, she had become one more feverish delusion to join the rest. He didn’t know whether to be grateful or disappointed.  
“Steve,” she said again, her voice tender as she leaned forward to rest her cool hand on his forehead, leaning forward and getting closer than she had been a second ago.

He gasped, because despite the delirium, the touch of the hand felt _real_. How could it feel so real?

“It’s about time you got something coming to you,” came a bitter voice. Steve jolted when he sat up and realized who was speaking to him. It was another person he hadn’t thought of in years, but he let out a low growl when he saw who it was. Nick Taylor had been a young man in his village when Steve had changed and had tried to incite the village into a wolf hunt, despite the fact that the McGarretts never caused any trouble.

During a skirmish between them, Steve had lost control and shifted. When he’d returned to his normal form, he’d found Nick lying on the ground with his face torn to shreds by claws. While Steve had never managed to overcome the guilt, he also would never forget the anger that Nick had riled out of fear.

“Some wolves don’t survive heat, you know,” Nick remarked, his face as bloody as ever as his ghostly visage taunted Steve. “Maybe you’ll be unlucky and I’ll get my revenge.”

“Hey,” came a golden voice through the fog. “Hey, hey, hey, what’s going on here? Steve? Babe?” That was Danny, rushing forward through Steve’s judging family and past, his doubts and worries, and all his fears. Steve searched through the haze to try and find Danny in all of this, but he feared that Danny was just another hallucination joining the party.

Steve reached out through the haze and his hand latched onto Danny’s wrist. Given the fact that only moments ago, he thought that he’d touched his mother, he thought maybe he shouldn’t put too much hope in this being reality. And yet, Danny felt warm and firm and right. Steve slid his thumb in circles along the pulse-line of Danny’s wrist, bringing it to his nose to slowly scent him as much as he could. With every additional inhalation, he calmed more than before, the smell of his mate being here relaxing him.

“Is he really here?” Mary’s voice chirped in and asked.

Steve growled, feeling fangs sliding out. He could hurt them if he’d wanted, but lunging after heat-apparitions probably wasn’t a good start to his time with Danny.

“Danny,” Steve managed to get out, hoping that he wasn’t actually insane. “Are you here?”

“I got the sky falling apart, the ocean turning on us, and you’re doubting my devotion to you?” Danny replied. When he sat down on the bed, Steve _felt_ the way his weight caused the mattress to dip. He had to be real. He had to be.

And yet, Steve also didn’t trust himself right now. “Are you real?”

“Steve,” Danny replied, this time a touch more tenderly than before. Now he seemed to understand what was happening and that Steve wasn’t just asking (this time) to rile Danny up. Steve was genuinely struggling to understand whether Danny was with him or was just one extremely vivid hallucination that he could feel and touch and smell.

In the end, his mating bond with Danny did the work for him.

The wolf in his brain was becoming offended that their mate was in their bedroom (and on their bed, no less) and he didn’t smell enough like Steve to belong there. He blinked through the itchy, hot, sweaty sensation and watched as the hallucinations began to vanish, one by one, until all he was left with was Danny. He and Danny were all alone, _finally_.

Danny smelled like the office -- stale donuts and bad coffee and too many things that weren’t Steve. That wasn’t going to last for a second longer. Steve moved faster than he had in years, grabbing Danny by the waist and hauling him into the air to pin him on his back on the bed, straddling his waist instantly and tightly, refusing to let him get away for just a single second.

“Whoa, hey…”

“Did Rachel talk to you?” he got out breathlessly.

“Yeah, she warned me that you’re going through some major wolf problems right now...”

“Did she tell you what I need from you?”

“She said that you’re in heat,” Danny confessed, but he looked like he didn’t exactly believe it.  
Steve grabbed hold of Danny’s wrists and pinned them above his head, bearing down on him to trail the tip of his nose along Danny’s neck in order to properly take in the smell of him, just to make sure that he still belonged to Steve.  
“I didn’t…holy shit that tickles…I didn’t believe her, but I’m thinking now that I’ve seen you like this, I’m starting to.”

“You don’t smell like me,” Steve growled, bearing his fangs as he moved down to the junction of neck and shoulder and bit nearly hard enough to spill blood. In this state, his brain only barely remembered that he wasn’t supposed to injure Danny anywhere near his neck, but the hard shove from Danny’s hand did two things.

It reminded Steve that he had to be careful.

It also made his alpha side come out roaring, a howl of displeasure echoing in the bedroom.

His grip on Danny’s wrists grew tighter to the point of bruising and Steve started to actually claw at Danny’s clothes, barely aware that he’d let his claws come out. He’d never partially shifted before, but then, he’d also never gone through a heat before. This half-state of being might’ve been something that he should have expected, or maybe Steve was just a special case.

He couldn’t shake that worry, but it didn’t really matter to him right now. All that mattered was getting Danny naked.

“Hey,” Danny breathed out. “I need you to tell me this is okay, Steve. Before we get too deep into this, you need to tell me you want it.”

“Danny,” Steve replied, looming above him and looking down at his mate and prey. “I’ve never wanted anything more. Now shut up and get on your knees.”

He could hear Danny mutter _here we go_ under his breath, but Steve didn’t give a damn. He slowly relinquished the last of his control and gave in to the onslaught of physical need that was overpowering him. Whatever was wrong with him at a base level could wait.

Right now, he had to make sure Danny smelled like him and only him, and he wasn’t stopping until he was thoroughly sure that he did.

* * *

Despite the fact that it was Kono’s job to follow Adam and try and convince him to come around, it wasn’t her call to make contact and instigate a connection, which led her to doing a lot of sitting, uselessly. She checked in with Jenna and found out about the new developments (finding out your boss was in heat was not an everyday occurrence) before her phone beeped at her, alerting her about an incoming text.

It was an unrecognized number asking to meet at a local coffee shop.

 _Who is this?_ she texted back, setting her phone aside and forgetting about it as she started to file paperwork. Lori hadn’t checked back in with them and Kono was starting to worry that they were going to be left out of a fight that really mattered. Still, it wasn’t like she could really do anything about it right now.

A few moments later, her phone lit up again.

She leaned over to read the alert, paying much more attention when she realized that it was Adam Noshimuri texting her. She didn’t even have time to reply to his text before he sent another:

_meet me in 5 minutes at the coffeeshop outside the palace_

Jenna was in the archives pulling research on local lore. Chin was working in the other room and she could ask him for backup, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to have him there. Part of her wanted to keep this meeting quiet. Adam didn’t seem dangerous and she honestly thought she could get through to him. Carefully sneaking her phone into her purse, she headed to the door.

“I’m starting to fall asleep. Think I’ll do a coffee run,” she offered. “I’ll bring you back those croissants you like?” she said, hoping Chin didn’t notice her pulse beating a touch faster.

Luckily for her, he seemed so focused on the digital files he was going over that he wasn’t paying attention to her at all. She didn’t linger, heading downstairs and hurrying to the coffee shop. She checked her phone again to find another text, telling her to meet him in one of the booths at the back.

Kono paused for a moment to stare up at the sky, which had now begun to churn, turning the sky into ominous green-looking clouds forming unnatural shapes that seemed to loom out from the peaks of Oahu. The air was dead silent and it took Kono a moment to realize that the silence was because all the birds had vanished. There wasn’t a hint of a sound in the air and she had to wonder if the sea was just as unearthly quiet, given the level of _not-right_ that seemed to have a stranglehold on the island, right now.

It showed in the mood of the coffee shop. Everyone inside was giving off an air of tension that hummed. It was one that Kono could understand, given how uneasy she felt.

She spared a moment to wonder what the hell she was doing, but rather than let that thought percolate, she charged forward and rounded on the booth, surprised to see that he was there alone.

“You’re alone,” he said, seeming surprised that she hadn’t brought backup. If Kono were honest, she was a little surprised she hadn’t done that herself and would find out fairly soon whether that was a grave mistake. “I never said you had to come alone.”

“You’re alone, too,” she pointed out, taking a seat and though she knew she ought to keep the door in her line of sight, that also put her in a position of being seen. Instead, she made sure she had one hand on her gun, ready to go, but wasn’t going to take that avenue unless she had to. “I didn’t really expect you to come alone, either,” Kono admitted.

“Maybe I just wanted some alone time with you?” Adam suggested, tipping his head to the side and giving her the sweetest smile that she’d ever received from someone who was potentially manipulating magic to benefit themselves.

She tried to banish those thoughts from her mind and focus on the case at hand.

“Does your brother know you’re here?” Kono asked.

“No,” was Adam’s grave reply. He, too, had switched back to being extremely serious after their light teasing and it seemed like the mere mention of Michael Noshimuri was enough to do it. “And if he did, I can’t imagine he’d take kindly to the fact that I was meeting with you.”

“So why are you…” She went quiet when the barista showed up to deliver two cups of coffee and a tray of condiments to them. Kono waited until she was gone before she tried that question again. “So why are you here?”

“I’m here because I don’t agree with what the Yakuza is doing and how it’s dragging the family business into it,” he said, clearly passionate about this.

Except, something didn’t really add up. “Aren’t they one and the same?”

“No,” Adam snapped. “They’re not. My father may have established his fair share of criminal dealings, but at the heart of it is an honest business. That’s all I want. Michael’s allowed me to handle the day to day affairs, but his latest plan has been dragging my staff and my companies into this. Not to mention me.” Adam had a sick look on his face and Kono was quickly beginning to realize that it was guilt.

“You’re the one causing all this insanity,” she said gently, because he seemed to feel awful about it already. “You’re the one helping him,” she amended, because she didn’t think being harsh with someone who potentially wanted to help them was the best idea.

“If I don’t, I’ll be ex-communicated from the family and that doesn’t mean a cushy retirement package. That means I turn up with coins over my eyes in one of the volcanoes,” Adam said knowingly. “But when you and Agent Weston came, I knew I had a chance to make this right. I can’t do this on my own, but I can do this with your help.”

He lifted the creamer to offer it to her, which Kono took along with the sugar. In the process, her fingers slid over his hand and she swore that she felt something like a spark. She ignored it with her head cast low to the table, but she thought that she could see Adam smiling out of the corner of her eye.

This was not a date, she reminded herself. They were two allies on opposing teams trying to talk peace. If there was anything remotely date-like about sitting in a coffee shop with an attractive man who made her heart race, then she’d deal with that later.

“If you’re really serious about helping us, we need to know how to stop this,” Kono insisted.

“I think if I can get my brother out of the picture, I can take over,” Adam said, sounding a little unsure of himself.

Kono already had an idea what ‘out of the picture’ meant, and that wasn’t exactly a good prospect. Looking past that, she tried to take the situation practically. “Won’t someone else just rise up and take over? Or are you looking to take over the Yakuza, too?”

“I would shut down their dealings on the island. Obviously I can’t prevent someone else from opening shop, but it won’t be under the Noshimuri umbrella,” Adam swore. “I would take the companies into honest dealings, make sure we’re aligned with the Governor’s office as far as our magic use goes, and even consent to regular checks by officiating agencies, if need be. That requires Michael to be out of the picture. So long as he’s around, he’s never going to let that happen.”

“Just to get this straight,” Kono started, “when you talk about getting him out of the picture…”

“There’s only one way to do it so he won’t ruin everything,” Adam said, looking even sicker than before. “And while I know exactly what I have to do, getting the courage to do is another story entirely.”

She couldn’t even begin to think about what Adam must be feeling. Then again, she was an only child and was lucky enough not to have any malevolent relatives (none that needed to be stopped actively, at least), so it wasn’t like she’d ever find herself in the same position. She reached across the table to give his hand a supportive squeeze, purely because she felt like he needed the help right now and no other reason.

None that she was willing to think about.

“What do you need from me? From us?” Kono asked.

“I’ll need the back-up. They have another ceremony and more spells they want me to cast in a few days from now, up in the hills, near Ka’ala. All the heavy hitters will be there. It’ll be our opportunity to stop this madness.” He seemed to drift from past to present, clearly strategizing. “I’ve been stronger with magic than my brother since I was a child, but my father traded on family loyalties to get me to help. I’ve never agreed with what I do for them, but I’ve never had the chance to stop. Now, I do.”

“He’s your only brother,” Kono tenderly reminded him.

“I know. But he’s made choices I can’t agree with,” Adam said firmly. “It has to be like this.” He set his half-finished coffee down and pushed away from the table. “I shouldn’t linger,” he admitted. “If they notice that I’ve been gone this long, someone’s going to start getting suspicious. I’ll text you with details when we get closer to the date.”

“Okay,” was all she could manage before he was out of there like a shot. Kono sat and lingered, staring into her lukewarm coffee as she wondered what the hell was happening in her life. She shifted in the booth to get up, but was instantly stopped when a dark shadow loomed over her, freezing her in place and forcing her to look up.

And when she looked up, she looked right into her cousin’s accusatory gaze.

“Chin,” Kono greeted him as brightly as she could, tapping into every reserve of lying she possessed and had practiced as a teenager. “I was just finishing up, you want to stop and get…”

“I know what you were doing here,” Chin cut her off. “Kono, why didn’t you tell me you were coming to meet one of the Yakuza here?”

He clearly thought it was a stupid idea and Kono bristled at the implication that she couldn’t take care of herself. She knew what she was doing and wasn’t a rookie anymore, which meant she knew how to assess a situation and determine if it was dangerous. More than that, she knew how to protect herself when it came to her job. Chin’s apparent belief that she couldn’t made her glare at him, knowing that he was only trying to protect her, but it was the worst possible thing that he could say.

“Are you following me?” she demanded.

“Answer me, Kono. Why didn’t you tell me you were coming here? It doesn’t look good.”

“I don’t think we need to talk about this,” she replied, kicking back in the booth and defensively crossing her arms over her chest. “I’m a grown woman, I graduated from the academy the same as you and I have plenty of talent and skill that _clearly_ Lori can see. So why are you so determined for me to sit back and watch things happen around me?”

“The world looks like it’s ending, Kono,” Chin replied, his eyes flashing amber with his anger. “How can you imply that I shouldn’t care this much? You’re my family.”

“And you’re mine,” she said instantly. “Which I thought meant that you’d trust me.”

“I do…"

“No,” Kono cut him off. “Chin, you clearly don’t. I’m still your little cousin in your eyes. When you look at me, do you even see the woman I am now? Or do you still just see the little girl that followed you around because you were her hero? I love you, Chin,” she said firmly. “But we need to move past this. We’re adults now, and I don’t worship you anymore. It gets even harder on days like this.”

She could see the physical ache she’d caused in Chin by the look on his face and she knew that this wasn’t something they could easily walk back from. Still, she didn’t feel bad enough to take it back, no matter how much it stung.

“If that’s how you feel, maybe we should talk to McGarrett about splitting us up for a while,” he said, voice an unfeeling monotone.

“Maybe,” she agreed, her own voice sounding distant and removed, like she was hearing herself speak from far away. She wanted to hit herself over the back of the head for even thinking about pursuing this, but he looked so serious and she really couldn’t get over the fact that he clearly didn’t trust her to run her own investigations and trust her instincts. She understood wanting to give her backup, but if she felt she’d needed it, she would have asked. Chin was stepping on her toes in a way that made her bristle and she wasn’t even sure she could put her finger on why, but had the suspicion it went back to the part where she was a regular human being in a field of supernaturals.

Being made to feel like she couldn’t do her job on her own was something that didn’t sit well with her. She quickly paid for her coffee, cheeks aflame with regret and shame and anger as she pushed herself up from the table.

Given how closely Chin was following her, she had the bad feeling that the argument wasn’t really over – just switching venues.

* * *

“…officials warn locals to keep inside their homes and for tourists to stay away from the ocean, as police have already had to send out emergency teams to save at least four people…”

The radio was definitely not a bastion of good news right now. Jenna used her elbow to pry free one of her earbuds, adjusting the books in her arms as she headed back to the office. She had to lift her chin to peer over the stack of books in her arms, fumbling for the door handle a few times before she managed to connect her hip to the door, easing her way in. The minute she made it in, though, she heard Chin and Kono arguing. “Okay, so I’m going back out,” she said to herself, but when she turned, she collided into someone (the books were really making it hard to see).

She let out a pained sound, her books crashing to the ground, but once the barrier was gone, she saw that Lori was the one that Jenna had crashed into.

“I don’t know if now is the best time for a team meeting,” Jenna warned her, casting a look over her shoulder to see that Chin and Kono were still in the middle of what looked to be a pretty intense argument.

“Unfortunately, we don’t really have a choice,” Lori admitted. “Come on,” she said. “I need you to brief us on the spells being used.” She tugged on Jenna’s sleeve and brought her over to where Chin was shouting at Kono about being naïve and she was spitting mad at him for being cynical  
This was something Jenna didn’t want to get involved in, but was happy to hide behind Lori for.

“What happened?” Lori demanded, hands on her hips.

“Kono’s been having secret meetings with Adam,” Chin accused when Kono’s silence filled the room.

“He never said to come alone,” Kono argued. “I just…decided to because…”

Jenna raised her eyebrow, because she knew how that sentence ended and it usually went along the lines of ‘I know it would have looked like I was having secret meetings with the enemy’.

Kono seemed to find some reserve within her, because she stood up a little taller than before and glared at Chin like she expected him to wilt, as if her gaze was pure sun and she was wielding it like a weapon. “He wants to help us,” she insisted.

“And you trust him?” Chin demanded.

“Yes! And you should trust my judgment!”

“Hey!” Lori shouted above the increasing noise, stepping in between Kono and Chin. “This is important. We need to know if he’s trustworthy and whether he’ll be an asset. Kono, is there any chance that he could be playing you?”

Kono hesitated and though her gaze lingered on Chin, it also seemed like she wasn’t going to give up so easily. “Of course there’s a chance,” she said. “There’s always a chance, but he says he wants to take his business legit. I say we use him and have a back-up plan in place in case things go south.”  
  
Jenna’s gaze slid to the side where Chin was standing, he looked almost surprised that Kono had suggested it.  
“I may trust him, but I’m not stupid,” she muttered

“Jenna, do you have any news for us?” Lori prodded with a desperate look on her face -- she seemed every bit as keen to get them away from the argument as Jenna herself was.

Jenna set her books down on the table and hurried back to get the remaining fallen soldiers, bringing them back in order to settle them there. She started to rifle through the pages, searching for the most important information that she’d flagged with little post-it notes and highlighted annotations.

“I found some information about the spell casting,” she said. “It’s heavily tied into the natural state of the island.”

Kono drifted closer to peer down at the engraved illustration in the book Jenna had just opened. “That would make sense,” she said, running her fingers over the page. “Adam said that Michael wanted another spell cast in a few days time near Ka’ala. If they’re drawing on the island’s power to increase their spells, it would explain why the island is affected and we’re not hearing anything from the mainland. But why now?”

“It’s because they’re breaking the laws,” Jenna said, flipping another book open. “Witches aren’t supposed to bend the rules this much. Sure, a tweak here and there wouldn’t hurt, but what they’ve done is like taking something that gently bends and they’ve snapped it completely in half. The universe is kicking up all these reactions like white blood cells going after an infection. It _knows_ something is wrong, it’s trying to cope with it.”  
  
“Can we fix it? Stop the bleed, so to speak?” Chin asked.

“I think once we deal with the immediate threat, I can get the local covens together and we can work on undoing the ill. I’m more worried about things getting worse, and there’s no point in fixing things if they’re going to keep happening,” Lori admitted. “Jenna, how do we stop it?”  
  
“We sort of need the spell caster’s help and a willingness to unravel the spells.”

“Adam,” Kono provided. “He’s the one with the magic in the family. He says that in order to help us, he has to deal with Michael.”

Jenna fell silent as she looked around the room, wondering if they also understood the implication of ‘dealing with Michael’. She was just an analyst; while she was used to evaluating the situation for danger, she didn’t think she’d ever get used to the casual way killing people made it into conversations here.

“Things might start to get dangerous soon,” Jenna warned. “The sky and the sea are one thing, but if the universe keeps trying to nudge out the bad magic, we could be dealing with lightning strikes, hurricanes in localized spots, tsunami waves as it tries to beat out what’s been cast…” Her brow was furrowed as she stared down at the ominous drawings in the book. She knew they had to fix it, no matter the cost. “The more they try and add to their fortune and use protection spells and prosperity verses, the worse off Oahu is,” Jenna said gravely.  
  
“And they don’t care about that,” Kono confirmed. “Michael made it plenty clear when we had our meeting.”

“So our only choice is to trust Adam,” Jenna reasoned, giving Chin an apologetic look, knowing that it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. “Even if he’s double-crossing us, we need to take advantage of that and try and put a stop to this. As far as I can figure, we’re due for some pretty intense earthquakes, if they keep going down this path.”

Chin didn’t look very happy with the plan and Kono looked just as sour-faced with Chin’s displeasure. Lori looked like she wanted to wait for more back-up, but knew that they were running out of time.

“Kono, make the arrangements. I want Adam wearing a wire and Chin, you can have a go at seeing whether you think he’s telling the truth or not,” she said calmly. “Jenna, will you follow up with Commander McGarrett and find out when he and Detective Williams are due in?”

“Ummm…”

Lori gave her a dubious look.

“It’s just that…” Jenna replied awkwardly. “The Commander is in the middle of a personal situation.”

Lori’s stare didn’t budge and Jenna felt like she was going to have to say it.

“So you know that he’s a werewolf and he’s mated to Danny,” Jenna said.

“Right. And?” Lori prodded.

“Just tell her,” Kono exhaled, clearly tired of the back and forth.

“Steve is in the middle of his first heat ever and Danny is helping him ride it out and we’re not sure when they’ll be here because none of us wanted to draw the short straw and accidentally interrupt any kind of weird mating heat ritual and scar ourselves for life with something we couldn’t unsee.” Jenna paused to go over the ramble she’d just delivered, checking that it told everything she needed, then realizing something she’d missed. “Oh. And Danny would kill us.”

“Danny would so kill us,” Kono agreed.

While Lori didn’t exactly look happy with the situation, there was a privately amused smile playing at the corners of her lips. She nodded, bowing her head and covering her mouth – clearly to cover her laugh.

“Okay, so, we’ll play it by ear when it comes to them,” Lori said. “Let’s get the rest of this operation set up. I’ll communicate with the mainland and let them know it’s a go.”

Jenna mustered up an enthusiastic smile, hoping that no matter what kind of interpersonal battle was waging between Chin and Kono, they’d be able to put it aside for the amazing opportunity in front of them. They were about to wage magical war and _save the world_. It really didn’t get cooler than that.

* * *

It had been twelve minutes of sheer, blissful torture. For the last twelve minutes, Steve was as deep as he could be inside Danny, knotting him and stretching him in ways he could’ve never anticipated.

Danny would swear, later, that he had never been so sweaty in all his life. His skin was slick with it, shining in the low light of the bedroom (which meant that it was either near sun-up or sundown, but he’d lost track of time). He was currently pinned on his back, his leg hooked over Steve’s shoulder, and was currently being driven past the point of insanity.  
He would relinquish nearly all the power he’d absorbed in the last few centuries, just to find some sort of orgasm.

“Steve,” Danny pleaded, his voice hoarse from hours of begging leading up this moment. He’d sworn up a storm and screamed and shouted, but still Steve only pushed deeper inside of him with his knot, doing things to him that no living immortal had probably ever experienced before (although, there were a few thrill-seekers that might’ve deliberately sought out an alpha in heat just to experience this thrill).

Twelve minutes ago, he’d been ecstatic.

Ten minutes ago, he might have been swearing, but he was still pretty goddamn blissful.

One minute ago? “Fucking god damn it, Steven McGarrett, I swear to god if you don’t let me come…” The words were sobbed out, barely holding any dignity in them, and it wasn’t like Danny was a bastion of dignity when it came to getting fucked. Steve’s fingers were curled tightly around Danny’s wrists and no matter how much he scrambled for his freedom, nothing budged. He couldn’t manage to get any leverage.

All that he could do was rock his hips upwards in a vain attempt to try and bring Steve to climax, because hopefully, he’d be able to get a hand on his own cock – something Steve was denying him, at this current moment in time.

Steve’s stubborn resolve finally loosened -- whether from Danny’s pleading or his own body forcing him to give in (who cared, really) -- and Danny was able to get a hand on his cock, stroking furiously. He’d never felt more like a teenager than he did in this exact moment, which was a pretty awesome feat given that it had been nearly half a millennia since Danny had gone through puberty.

“Fuck!” he cried out, coming all over Steve and managing to get him from chin to stomach. It didn’t seem like Steve minded though, given the way he grabbed hold of Danny’s shoulder even tighter than before and forced his way _even deeper_ and holy god, Danny didn’t know his body was equipped for Steve pushing that far in.

Maybe part of werewolf heat was some kind of strange ability to shift physical form and capabilities (and Danny was not, absolutely not, possibly only maybe going to ask Rachel about the slick Steve seemed to be producing to help lube them on a constant basis).

“Steve, come on,” he begged, come minute fifteen.

“I can’t…”

“What?” Danny panted, staring at Steve and giving him an alarmed look. There was a real difference between asshole-like teasing and withdrawal and building up to an impressive orgasm, and Steve looking panicked and the knot only growing tighter inside of Danny. Rachel had warned him that something like this might happen – that something might go wrong.

(“I know you think you’ve seen heats before,” she’d said, “but something isn’t right with Steve.”

“I’m glad someone’s finally on my side! Have I not been saying that for years?”

Rachel had put her hands on her hips and glared at Danny, the age-old silent signal of ‘you’re not funny’, but he kind of thought he was pretty goddamn hilarious. “He’s over two hundred years old. Mated or not, he should have had his first heat a long time ago. Mary hasn’t had hers, either.”

Sure, it wasn’t exactly normal, but he didn’t think it was time to leap to the worst conclusions.

“If things get rough in there,” she had gone on, eyes flashing with concern as she reached out to grasp his hand, “you may have to give him some of your power.”)

It was Rachel’s advice that echoed in Danny’s head now.

He’d never transferred power before (not like this), but that was before he’d gone and mated with a werewolf, forming one of the few and extremely rare immortal-wolf couplings. Now, it seemed like the sort of thing he shouldn’t be surprised he was about to do.  
  
There really wasn’t a playbook they could use to guide them on this one. “Steve,” Danny said quietly, sapped of his energy from his climax, but knowing from the red wash on Steve’s face and the look of distress in his eyes that something was very, very wrong.

Danny tried to ignore the fact that Steve was starting to semi-wolf out, his claws out and his teeth sharpening into fangs, the planes and angles of his face shifting into something bestial.

“Babe,” Danny pleaded, reaching down to try and get a hand on Steve’s cock and help him out, but he knew this kind of intimacy was going to be more intense than that.

The only other time in his life that he’d done this had been years and years ago. There had been a young potential that Danny could have sworn was destined to become an immortal like him, but had grown sick. On his deathbed (too young and from natural causes and not the sharp, violent death that had been required), Danny had taken his hand and told him it would be okay.

He took Steve’s hand in his, grabbing tight as he tried to let his body relax and loosen up around the knot. “Steve,” he murmured. “It’s going to be okay. I need you to close your eyes and count to ten for me.”

“Danny, it’s bad,” Steve huffed out, voice barely more than a growl.

For Steve to admit that it was getting bad, the pain had to be on a scale beyond anything Danny could even fathom, especially given a wolf’s tolerance for pain and Steve’s general idiocy when it came to admitting he was hurt. Danny closed his eyes and reached down into the reserves of power he’d absorbed over the years, from the most recent kills like Sang-Min to the older and more meaningful.

He could feel the power begin to stir, like he’d kindled a spark inside of him. He grasped tighter to Steve when he felt the man start to pull away from him, knowing that this wasn’t going to work unless they were bound together as much as they could be.

He reached his free hand around to tangle into Steve’s sweaty hair (how long had they actually been doing this? He’d lost track of time to the point that it might have been weeks, for all Danny knew) and leaned in to kiss him hard and clumsily. He formed three points of contact as those sparks began to swim and old villains and friends’ power and force twined together and began to make Danny feel stronger again.

He could feel that strength start to fall away as he let it pass through him and right to Steve, - giving up his power, giving up what he’d earned over the centuries, but knowing that it was going to someone who was going to be with him.

Besides, Danny was pretty sure that if his mate died, he wasn’t going to make it much longer anyway.

He felt the moment it started to work, and everything happened quickly after. Danny opened his eyes, refusing to let Steve go from the kiss as he tangled his fingers tighter in Steve’s hair, kissing Steve a little harder than before. It couldn’t have been more than thirty seconds later before Steve was finally coming, his knot relaxing inside of Danny and his wolf features fading right back to humanity.

It could have been thirty seconds, but it also could have been a week. Danny’s sense of time was seriously affected at that point. It felt like Steve kept coming and coming, until his body _had_ to have been sapped of everything, but then he came a little more.

Finally, Steve collapsed atop Danny, but didn’t move out of him – which was probably for the best. Danny didn’t think he could bear the emptiness right now, this close from a coupling. He felt weaker than he had in years, like all his reserves were gone. If he had to take a guess, he’d say that he’d lost about a hundred years of won battles, but if it came down to a fight, he had an angry wolf in his corner. That more than made up for it.

“Hey, babe,” Danny mumbled, running his fingers through Steve’s sweaty hair. “Are you with me?”

Steve grunted, barely conscious.

“I know you’re exhausted, but that was getting scary,” Danny kept prodding. “So I’m going to need to get a verbal response that you’re fine. Just tell me that you’re gonna live and I didn’t just waste a century of battle royale on you.”

“I’m okay,” Steve promised, sounding as weary as Danny. Danny wasn’t sure whether he entirely believed him, but at the same time, he was too tired to focus. He’d never been through a heat before, but even his longest marathon of sex prior to this couldn’t hold a candle to what they’d just done. “How long has it been?”

Danny lifted his head and peered at the watch on the bedside table, groaning when he realized exactly how long had actually passed.

“Almost seventy-two hours,” he said. “Jesus Christ, McGarrett,” he whined, knowing that every part of him was going to be sore as hell. “Promise me you’ll wait another hundred years or so before we have to go through that again.” Not to mention they needed time to figure out some kind of drug-related assist, so Danny didn’t have to go picking fights for the next century just to store up his power for the next time.

“Danny? I love you,” Steve mumbled, “but shut up and go to sleep.”

So no round fifteen or whatever they were at. Danny wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, corralling whatever pillows hadn’t been thrown aside in order to build a semi-assembled fort around them to protect them from moving. They slept, curled around each other as tightly as possible.

They slept and slept, strange and heated dreams filtering through Danny’s subconscious as the hours passed. He woke only when he heard his phone chirping, and when he reached over to check it, saw that he’d been out for twenty-five hours. It was probably a record, if not for the fact that he was still pretty sure his death-nap exceeded this by just a few.

Fumbling with his cell phone, he dragged it into bed with him, gently prying himself away from Steve (only an inch or two). He noticed that at some point in the night, Steve had slid out of him, leaving a mess that was definitely worthy of a good bubble bath. “Rachel,” Danny greeted, voice hoarse from too many hours of shouting and screaming. “To what do I owe the pleasure.”

“This is Steven’s phone,” she said patiently.

Danny lifted it away from his face, checked it, and then set it back at his ear again. “I’m pretty sure I get half of everything as his mate.”

“Well, I’ll happily take half a conversation,” she promised. “Put me on speaker.”

Danny reached over and poked Steve in the side, smirking in smug delight as it woke him, forcing him to a waking state (or somewhere close to it). Steve burrowed in and wrapped his arms around Danny’s middle, eyelids fluttering open.

 _Rachel,_ Danny mouthed.

“Hi Rachel,” Steve greeted sleepily, looking more adorable and sexy than any man had a right to be after nearly killing Danny with great sex. Danny both praised and lamented the fact that they couldn’t do anything more while Rachel was on the phone, knowing that they could probably both use the time-out. “What’s up?”

“First of all, I am not your secretary,” she began in that clipped, pissed-off way that told Danny that she’d received one too many calls for them. “Jenna would like you both to know that when the worst of your heat is over, they require your help to stop the world from ending.”

“You could have pitched in for us,” Danny pointed out.

Rachel sniffed audibly. “Unless they take my head in the process, I outlive the world,” she said. “Besides, I’ve been very busy. Steven, I’ve done a little digging into your past and your family’s history, speaking to a few other immortals who shared local space around you at the same time. It looks as if I was right.”

She was always right. Danny wasn’t sure why she didn’t just lead with that. Thousands of years of existence had made her into a know-it-all, but a know-it-all that you wanted on your team.

“Right about what?” Steve took over the conversation, shooting Danny a warning look. It was helpful that they knew each other well enough by now to know that if Danny took Rachel’s bait, they’d end up spiraling down into a never-ending argument.

“Steve, you’re not all wolf.”

Danny bit down on his tongue, but even that wasn’t good enough. “I don’t know, he felt pretty full wolf to me,” came out, because he just couldn’t pass up an opportunity like that.

The icy silence coming from the speakerphone was definitely earned.

“Yeah, okay, I’m getting smacked next time I see you,” Danny allowed. “What do you mean not all-wolf?”

“Your father was clearly a wolf,” Rachel admitted. “Given that the stories corroborate with him turning you.”

“And my mother was human,” Steve said quickly (almost too quickly, like he was already in denial about this). “She died.”

“Steve,” came Rachel’s voice after a slight pause. “No. She didn’t.”

“My father said that he killed my mother,” Steve said, his voice frayed and sounding like it was on the cusp of shaking. Danny reached over and grabbed at his hand to give it a light squeeze, trying to support him through whatever insanity this was. “He said…”

“He said he didn’t remember,” Danny reminded him calmly, having heard this story many times. “Babe, you know he said he was never sure.”

“So my mother got away and left us and died of old age,” Steve said, following the logical path. “How is that any better, knowing that my mother abandoned me and Mary?”

“Well, I have good news and bad news.”

This was never good, thought Danny, unsure of which one he even wanted first. This wasn’t his decision, though. He looked to Steve and calmly waited for Steve’s choice, willing not to argue and bicker, knowing that Steve needed this right now.

“Bad news first.”

“Well, I’m sorry to say that you’re right. Your mother did abandon you and your sister. She also left your father,” she added, as if John McGarrett was just a passing thought. “I wish I could tell you otherwise, but I can’t.”

“And the good news?” Danny prodded, when Steve’s shock seemed to cause him to forget that there was more to come.

“The good news is that she’s still alive.”

Okay, even that news got Danny silent. He wasn’t sure that qualified as good news so much as strange news, and it looked like Steve had been gut-punched, unable to even comprehend what Rachel was saying. Danny didn’t even want to start thinking about all the possibilities, but his traitorous brain kind of did it for him. He felt a twist of displeasure in his stomach imagining her as an immortal because he really feared that he could end up in a battle with her and, mate or not, he didn’t know if killing your mate’s mother was the kind of thing you forgave.

None of the other options were exactly great ones either.

All he knew was that they could scratch out human and werewolf, but that left a whole goddamn array of possibilities as to what Steve’s mother could be, from vampire to witch to siren.

The silence from the other end of the line was what made Danny realize exactly what Doris McGarrett was. Steve didn’t have the benefit of knowing all of Rachel’s tells, so he was still staring aggressively at the phone, clearly running through all the possibilities himself. Danny, though, knew that Rachel’s hesitance meant that there was just the slightest bit of reverent fear and Rachel was only really worried about _one_ type of supernatural being.

“Rachel,” Steve demanded. “Tell me.”

“She’s a fae, Steve.”

Of course she was. The one creature in all the supernatural multi-verse that Danny actually feared, and his mother-in-law had to end up being one. He barely managed to keep it together around the Governor and she was, ostensibly, on their side. Steve’s mother was a fae, and she had abandoned her children centuries ago for who knew what reasons. Danny glanced over to watch Steve work it out, curling into his embrace a little tighter as he tried to squeeze his hand and give whatever support he could in his exhausted state.

“So Mary and I …”

“You’re both half wolf, half fae,” Rachel confirmed.

“That’d explain the rough heat,” Danny admitted, because there was probably a whole lot of DNA in Steve’s blood that had been rebelling against the wolf, causing an internal battle that wound up ravaging Steve. “You could probably get it under control, but you’d have to tap into that side.” As he said the words, the obvious hit him in the face.

How could he have missed it?

Steve was _half fae_. It explained some things, like his seemingly unnatural luck at not grievously injuring himself doing incredibly stupid things; and the charm he seemed to exude, collecting wayward misfits with nothing more than a promise and a smile. He was probably overlooking so many other things, but he was still processing.

“Okay, so,” Danny said, “Steve and I are officially the world’s first mating between an immortal and a half-fae, half-wolf. Rach, babe, you wanna call the Guinness Book of World Records, or you want me to?”

More icy silence, but Danny had to turn to humor to get him through this because if he didn’t laugh, he knew he was bound to cry. Steve looked like he was closer to the latter, but Danny knew it couldn’t be easy to find out that your mother had abandoned you and was still kicking around the world somewhere.

“Do you think the Governor knows?” he asked, voice hoarse.

“I don’t think so,” Rachel said tenderly, all that maternal instinct she’d accrued over the years in her words. “From the research I did, your mother stayed on the east coast until a century ago. The last sightings of her, however, were in Asia. I don’t know what she’s doing, Steve, but I wouldn’t get involved. None of it sounds like it will lead you towards anything but trouble.”

“She’s my mother,” Steve argued.

“Okay, look, we’re not gonna get anywhere with this if we keep shouting,” Danny intruded on the argument before Rachel could get wound up and they ended up in an endless circle of bickering that was too damn exhausting after the days they’d just had. “Rachel, thanks for the information. We promise that Steve won’t do anything stupid,” he said, glaring when Steve opened his mouth. “Pinky promise,” he growled.

“I’ll keep an ear out for more news,” Rachel promised before she hung up and Danny was able to set the phone aside.

He let Steve have a long moment to process the news, watching the shock and anger play out over his face. Danny couldn’t blame him, given that he probably would’ve exploded with anger if he’d found out his mother was still kicking and had abandoned him when he was younger without a good reason.

Knowing that Steve was part-fae now made him a little leery of pushing too many buttons.

“I guess we know why the Governor likes you so much, huh,” Danny finally broke the silence. “You think she sniffed it out of you?” If she had, it meant that she’d been keeping it a secret from Steve too. The list of people in his life that were hiding things from him was growing way too fast for Danny’s comfort, so he knew he needed to switch topics. “How about that heat, huh?”

“Are you okay?” Steve asked, and Danny cheered internally for figuring out that hitting on Steve’s concern was the right way to get out of that conversation. “Danny, I felt the power you transferred to me,” he said, gaze flicking over Danny’s face as he wrapped himself around Danny. “It felt like a lot.”

“A century’s worth of power,” Danny admitted, because after this, he knew that he needed to be honest with Steve for probably the next decade to avoid creating some severe trust issues. “I got plenty left in the tank, baby, don’t you worry about me. I’m more worried about you. What happens if the next heat is just as bad? You were pretty close to losing control and I don’t wanna think about what wolf claws to my throat would do.”

“If it took this long to have my first, hopefully we’ve got plenty of time to fix it,” Steve said pragmatically. “I can bring Max into it.”

“Oh good, the psychic grabbing lab samples of my hair and blood and come. That’s every man’s dream. I pray to god he doesn’t do sperm readings.”

Steve seemed to be learning from Rachel because wow, was that one hell of an icy glare he was getting. Still, Danny was only joking and eventually Steve thawed and offered up a conciliatory snort, like he was mildly acknowledging Danny’s genius sense of humor.

“It’s a good idea,” Danny said, once Steve had calmed down and a moment had passed. “I mean, I hate it and it’s invasive and Max will forever be a part of our lives, but I’ll take anything that keeps you from getting so dangerously close to a bad place again,” he went on, trying to remind himself that Steve was alive and well.

He was okay.

“We’ve got other things to worry about before that,” Steve said, playing the boss card. “We’ll set an alarm, get another few hours of sleep and then I think we need to put some time into the office.”

“I look forward to the million bow-legged jokes,” Danny deadpanned, but knew that they couldn’t hide away forever. Whatever was happening right now, Five-0 would be much stronger off with their team werewolf and immortal back in semi-fighting shape. “Four hours? Six, tops?”

Steve grunted his agreement, but his eyes were quickly closing, his breathing growing heavier as he collapsed on Danny’s chest. The bastard had already passed out without even waiting for Danny’s approval.

Luckily for him, he was still too worn out to care too much and was unconscious in a matter of minutes himself.

When he woke up, the sun was beginning to set and an alarm was going off (which Danny didn’t remember setting, so he had to assume Steve had woken up and made sure to get one in place like the obsessive control freak he was). He dragged himself to the edge of the bed and tenderly placed his feet on the floor, wincing as he stood for the first time in a while, heading to the bathroom for a much needed piss, forcing himself into the shower for a quick scrub-down before he headed back to the bed.

Every muscle was screaming and he definitely wasn’t going to be comfortable sitting down for a while, but he was functional. He dressed while watching Steve sleep, letting the man have a few more minutes as Danny yanked on his jeans, his shirt, and hooked his sword belt on, taking the necessary time to do his hair before he leaned over the bed to poke Steve awake.

He leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Steve’s forehead, then his nose, finally finishing with a lingering kiss to his lips. He grinned as he watched his mate slowly rouse from sleep, lashes rising from his cheeks. Between the sleepy look and the exhaustion, he’d never looked more adorable to Danny than he did at this exact second.

“Hey,” Danny murmured fondly, pointing Steve towards the shower. “The alarm you set went off. It’s time for us to be contributing members of society again.”

Steve gave a petulant grunt, but he headed for the bathroom, taking one of his short showers, the kind he took when he didn’t want to completely lose the mingled scent of the two of them. When he came out, drying himself, Danny held out a t-shirt for him to take.

Steve grabbed it, but buried his nose in it for a moment, before yanking on Danny’s shirt to drag him closer instead, like all he needed was to get a good scent of Danny, to wake up. Tenderly, Danny coaxed Steve into the shirt, rubbing a hand over the various collections of bite marks, scratches, and bruises that Steve had managed to collect over the last few days.

If Danny thought that was bad, he should just look in the mirror.

“Did you get an update?” Steve asked, clearly too groggy to really be in a position to remember anything Danny told him. It was cute how he was trying.

“I checked my phone, but there’s just the usual hundred texts wanting to know if we’re done banging.”

“Not Chin,” Steve said.

“No, definitely not. Kono. Then, a bunch of texts from Jenna telling me that Chin and Kono are fighting and it makes her kind of want to cry and this one I don’t even know how to explain. Somehow Lori has my number and has been sending through pre-battle strategies for immortals that I haven’t seen since some 18th century coven books got released.”

“She’s thorough,” Steve conceded, dragging on his t-shirt in slow motion. He slowly pulled his pants on in the same slow, belabored fashion, wincing as he clearly tugged on overused muscles. “Okay. Let’s go see what’s going to kill us today.”

“If nothing’s changed, then it’s the Yakuza’s private coven trying to sink the island so they can rule Atlantis or some other badly thought out reason,” Danny said. He reached for his keys and dangled them in front of Steve. “Wanna drive?”

“You can,” Steve offered.

Danny raised his brow in shock. Well, now he knew it was the apocalypse, if Steve was willingly giving up control of his car. Still, it wasn’t something he was about to argue, so instead of asking if he was really sure, he just took advantage.

Maybe the heat had knocked some sense into Steve’s brain. Maybe this level of physical soreness had a few perks after all.

* * *

Every few moments, Kono kept checking the door.

She didn’t mean to. She had the fullest of faith that they could do this without Steve and Danny, but the truth was that having a couple extra cannons of fire-power made her feel a whole lot more comfortable. Plus, it would be good to have more of a barrier between her and Chin. Even though Chin had vetted Adam himself and figured out that his intentions seemed fairly trustworthy, he still seemed angry with Kono for not telling him about the meeting.

She was about to give up hope when she heard the faint sound of Danny’s ranting from the hall.

“…you said you didn’t want to drive, so stop bitching about my driving!”

“Just because I didn’t want to drive doesn’t mean I wanted you to drive like an old grandmother,” Steve retorted, but he sounded more tired than usual. Kono had to imagine the heat had taken a lot out of the both of them and didn’t want to push too far, but offered a sympathetic smile as they rounded the corner and entered the office.

“Just when I was starting to think I was going to get the big office.” Kono mock-sighed as she shook her head, heading straight for Danny to give him a hug. She thought better of it when she heard a low growl from Steve, which she hoped was just a leftover thing from the heat and not because Steve genuinely thought she was a threat. She stepped back and held up both hands to protest her innocence.

While she was a little worried about the fact that he could totally tear her throat out, Kono had to admit she found it a tiny bit adorable how he was worrying over Danny.

“Boss,” she deadpanned. “He’s yours.”

“None of us want him, anyway,” Chin said wryly, standing a good distance away. “Good to see the both of you here. We could use the help.”

“So we’ve heard,” Danny said. “Where are we?”

“We were just about to weapon up,” Kono reported, nodding her head towards the room at the end of the hall with their weapons. She worked at her tablet to arrange the files for the case they had so far as they began their walk towards the armory. “Adam Noshimuri is going to help us. He understands how dangerous it is, but he’s tired of his family using him and manipulating his magic for their gain. We’re going up to Ka’ala for sunrise,” she said.

“The target here is to stop Michael,” Chin said as they headed inside the armory. “While there are other levels in the Yakuza that are definitely going to butt heads with Adam, Michael is the true wielder of political power. We take off his head, the body crumbles.”

Kono didn’t say anything about the whole beheading thing because she had the bad feeling it really might come down to that. She set her tablet aside to start gearing up, trying to shake the worry that someone was going to find Adam out before they could finish the job.

Luckily, she had plenty to focus on, what with the need to get ready for the fight on the horizon. She also had to make sure that the people around her were okay (even if she stubbornly refused to admit that this included Chin Ho).

“Are you sure you’re up for this, boss?” Kono asked as she checked the ammo for her sniper rifle, glancing sideways to where Steve still looked pale. Danny wasn’t too much better and Chin was keeping his distance from her. She really didn’t get the feeling that they were an elite task-force right now so much as she thought they were a group of underdogs.

Thank god they had Adam working their side.

At least, she hoped that he was on their side. Within the next few hours, Adam would prove one way or the other whether he was an ally or foe. Kono tried to quiet the voice in her head that kept pointing out he could double-cross them.

“I’m fine,” Steve promised. “Danny gave me some of his energy to get me through the worst of it.”

Kono looked from Danny to Steve and then back. There was definitely something going on, because the way Steve spoke in a clipped and stressed tone, and the way Danny seemed to be protectively hovering around the man all had the same effect as flashing warning bells and neon signs.

Then again, what _wasn’t_ going wrong on the island right now?

She caught Chin watching the both of them suspiciously, and it made her grateful that it wasn’t just her paranoia playing up. If Steve wasn’t saying anything and _Danny_ wasn’t ranting out loud about it, she knew that it meant they weren’t going to hear about it. Which was a shame, because Kono could be nosy every now and then and this seemed like juicy gossip.

Her phone dinged at her to alert her about a new text message and she gladly took the opportunity for distraction, yanking it out to find a brief, panicked message from Adam.

“Shit,” she swore, eyes widening. She looked up at the worn state Steve and Danny were in, how Chin still seemed tense, she didn’t even know where Lori and Jenna were.

“What?” Steve coaxed.

“Timeline moved up,” she said. “It’s not happening at sunrise. It’s happening at sundown, tonight.” She fired off a rapid text so Adam knew she’d gotten his message, then quickly checked her watch and cursed under her breath again. “We’ve got about two and a half hours before this goes down.”

Danny took Kono’s lead, muttering colorful profanities under his breath, but it seemed to be exactly what Steve needed. He stood a little taller and some of the exhaustion seemed to bleed away as he was given a task.

“Okay,” Steve said. “Kono, you come with me and brief me on the situation. Danny, find Jenna and Lori and coordinate everyone here to tac-up within the next hour. Chin, keep working on supplies and anything we might need. Make sure you eat,” he added, before gesturing for Kono to follow him.  
  
She set down her things, barely giving Chin a second-glance even though she knew that it was getting petty at this point, following after Steve.

Steve stopped midway through the hall, gesturing back to the armory. “What’s going on between you and Chin?” he demanded.

“What do you mean?” she asked, wishing she could play dumb, but Steve was already pretty good at ferreting out the truth even without bringing his werewolf senses into it. She deflated mildly and wondered how they could do this quickly while still being completely truthful. “Chin thinks I’m giving Adam too much benefit of the doubt. I think Chin doesn’t trust me. We’ve been a little tense because of it.”

“Are you both going to be okay to do this?”

She nodded emphatically, knowing that no matter what was happening in her personal life, she’d never let it interfere with her job. “We’re professionals,” she promised, knowing the same of Chin. “I swear, we’ll be fine.”

At least, if everything went to plan they’d be fine. Things had started to get even stranger, starting with the temperature outside dipping a degree an hour. It felt more like Danny’s favorite Jersey instead of a tropical paradise and the sky was getting darker and darker. The waves in the ocean had started to recede into multiple whirlpools, and Kono feared a tsunami if it was released all at once.

“Okay, then,” Steve said. “Tell me what I’ve missed.”

Kono didn’t spare a detail as she filled Steve in on the players, the plan, and the magic at hand. By the time he was caught up, the rest of the team was in the armory while Chin distributed weapons. There was no other choice but to go forward.

“The intel we have says that Michael Noshimuri is only bringing four with him for this ceremony,” Lori said, once everyone had their vests on and had picked their weapons of choice. “The goal is to take these four out and try and keep some distance between us. With Adam’s assistance, we have the upper hand, but only if we can avoid them calling for backup. Kono, Chin, Steve. One of you needs to take on two targets with a rifle.”

“I’ll do it,” Kono volunteered before the others could even think to offer.

“Good. That leaves Danny for close contact.”

“If he tries to run, he’ll figure out pretty fast what a blade against his neck feels like,” Danny vowed.

“Once the targets have been dealt with, surround Michael and make sure the job is finished _completely_. Jenna and I will make sure that the entrance to the mountain trail is secure,” Lori said, her gaze sliding to Steve. “Does that sound like an agreeable plan?”  
  
Kono knew that it was probably killing Steve to give up this much control, but at least he was humble enough to recognize that he’d missed leaps and bounds of this conflict while he’d been struggling with his own issues. Steve nodded to confirm the plan could move forward, and Kono felt a simultaneous flush of adrenaline and relief knowing that the team was together on this, but that was tamped down by the reality of knowing they really only had one shot.

If they let Michael get away, there was no telling the kind of havoc he was going to wreak on the island.

“Let’s do this,” Steve said, lingering by Danny’s side and pressing a hand to the small of his back; it was clearly lingering protective instinct, but Kono was struggling not to find it kind of enviously adorable.

She knew she’d been single way too long when she was jealous of her boss’ weird relationship. Maybe after all this was done, she could try and work on fixing that. _With or without Adam,_ she forced at the end of that thought.

Kono piled into the Camaro with Steve and Danny, but the awkward silence made her start to wish that she’d driven with the others, even if that would have been a whole _other_ kind of awkward silence.

“There’s a conversation you’re not having because of me, isn’t there?”

Danny glanced over his shoulder, then back at Steve, and shrugged. “Babe, it’s up to you. I mean, you really think they’re not gonna find out at some point?”

Steve’s jaw looked so tight that Kono watched every movement with mildly concealed awe, wondering if he was always this tightly wound or if this was the first time she was really looking. Danny was right, though. Information didn’t really stay quiet within their office and somehow, someday, she’d eventually find out whatever they were keeping secret.

“Fine,” Steve said. “It turns out that I’m not all wolf.” His fingers tightened on the steering wheel as he stared forward with a one-minded focus. “My mother is a fae.”

 _Is_ , not was. That meant that she was still alive, as far as they knew. This was definitely serious. Kono had been kind of expecting to hear that there was bad heat sex or something. Not that she wanted to hear it, but it would’ve explained the tension and the awkward silence. This was a completely different can of worms.

“So what are you going to do?”

“I don’t know yet,” Steve admitted. “Telling Mary has to be the first step. She deserves to know this, especially because it affects her, too.”

“Remind me to find somewhere else to be for that conversation,” Danny muttered. “You were too tired to have the kind of reaction that I’m dreading, but Mary? We’re gonna have to make sure nothing around her is flammable.”

Not for the first time, Kono was grateful for her normal, mortal parents and her mortal life. Up until Chin had been forcibly turned, nothing supernatural had really happened to the Kalakaua-Kelly clan. They respected the island and all the beings that inhabited it, but they were as normal as you could be. “I’m sorry she didn’t tell you,” she offered her sympathies to Steve.

“Yeah,” he agreed, his gaze still forward. “I am, too.”

Kono was desperately glad to see their destination come into view. The last thing they needed was to push Steve to the edge, knowing how badly he could snap if given the opportunity. She hauled her rifle strap over her shoulder and took a look at the paths. “There,” she said, seeing the stairs that went to the far edge of the peak. “I’ll take those, set up on the other side.”

“No, you stay close,” Steve corrected. “I want you close in case we need you to work on Adam. You’re his connection right now, we need to leverage that. I’ll take the far side. I’m not in the kind of shape I need to be in to stop things if they go wrong. Use Danny for protection if you need him,” he said.

“‘Use Danny,’ he says,” Danny said, shaking his head. “Like I’m a joint he passes around…” He opened the car door and kept on bitching, but Kono grinned as she watched the way Steve only smiled when Danny wasn’t looking, clearly riling up the other man on purpose.

“Are you okay?” she asked, before Steve could get out of the car, too.

“We’ll see,” Steve replied, following after Danny. Kono stepped in line, on high alert now that they had arrived. The parking lot was empty but for their two cars and the two Escalades much further up. In the distance, she could see two bulky guards standing at the foot of the path. She yanked Steve aside and grabbed Danny behind tree cover, signaling to the others to follow them.

“I’ve got this,” Lori promised, continuing to walk forward without breaking her step, chanting under her breath in old Latin. From this distance, Kono couldn’t hear anything that was happening, but one minute the thugs had their hands going to their guns and the next, Lori was slamming her palms into their foreheads and they went crumpling to the ground in a heap.

“Okay,” Jenna said, from where she was lingering behind Kono. “So witches are gonna be in my nightmares for a while now, too.”  
  
Kono hurried out from their cover, taking the stairs two at a time, leaving the others in her shadow as she hurried to get to her position. They were acting on the best information they had, but she still worried that maybe they were too late or maybe Adam was really betraying them the whole time. By the time she reached a spot where she could see and hear everything, Danny had caught up to her as she was assembling the rifle, sliding down to look through the scope.

She picked out everyone’s positions through the scope, watching as Adam navigated his way back and forth, pacing frantically on the inside edge of the path, hidden from view of the parking lot and by the edge, where the drop off was dramatic. Kono’s knuckles went a little whiter from her grip, worried about Adam tumbling off the edge and taking their chance at victory away before they even got to use it.

“…please, Michael, this isn’t the right idea,” Adam was saying, the words faintly drifting over the wind, but still making it to their ears.

Relief punched through Kono as she realized that Adam was stalling for time, which meant he was working with them. With Michael and the few security thugs’ backs to them, Kono felt safe adjusting the scope of the rifle so it caught a hint of the slowly setting sun, glinting and letting Adam know that he had backup. She could see the way Adam stood just a little taller now that he knew he had backup.

“Do you have the shot?” Danny asked under his breath.

Kono repositioned, shifting the rifle so that she could seek out the last two guards on the far side of the Noshimuri boys. Once she had a good line of sight on two of them that she could take out in quick succession, she gave Danny the thumbs up, allowing him to press his back to the natural terrain and text both Chin and Steve that they were ready.

The first ping came in thirty seconds later.

“Chin’s good to go,” Danny reported.

The next ping was Steve. “Thirty seconds, Kono,” Danny reported. “Then take your shots.”

From the instant Danny had spoken, Kono had started a countdown in her mind, trying to keep it cool and steady even as the conversation between Adam and Michael seemed to grow more heated. Michael was drifting into Adam’s space, shoving him back, but the guards hadn’t moved and that was all that mattered.

_…twenty-two, twenty-one…_

Her heart started to race as she saw the gun in Michael’s hands. He pressed it against Adam’s temple, forcing the other man to look aside to try and avoid staring at the barrel, and Kono had to remind herself that she was gunning for Michael as soon as the guards were out of the picture.

_…fifteen, fourteen…_

Danny shifted beside her, unsheathing his sword as he tipped his head back, breathing steadily. Kono matched her inhalations to his, keeping them good and calm, and as the countdown tripped under ten, she zoned out and focused all her movements on her breathing.

At one, she fired her first shot, then rapidly set up for the second, swinging the rifle to the side and catching the second guard with a bullet to the heart before he could move. Chin and Steve had both fired within seconds of her first shot to cover her in case she hadn’t been fast enough and suddenly, Michael had gone from having the advantage to being the one without.

Then again, he also still had a gun pressed to Adam’s head, so maybe they didn’t have the full advantage yet.

She nodded to Danny as she set aside the rifle (intending to dissemble it later), shoving it under the brush and relying on her pistol. They hurried closer to the peak’s ridge, watching as Michael yanked Adam around and held him by the back of his neck, the other hand still fixed to the gun he was using to threaten his brother.

“I knew you were stupid,” Michael said to Adam. “But this? I’m your family.”

“You’re the one forcing me to cast spells I don’t want in the world,” Adam spat out bitterly. “What kind of family does that?”

Kono wanted to point out that family usually didn’t threaten one another with guns, but had the feeling that quips weren’t really the best strategy right now, especially as they came around the ridge and put themselves in Michael’s full view. Michael wavered only briefly, pointing the gun at Danny for a moment before his eyes narrowed and he saw the sword. As soon as he figured out shooting Danny would be useless, he turned the gun on Kono.

“No, don’t!” Adam shouted in a panic.

Kono froze on the spot, cursing under her breath and wishing that Adam hadn’t reacted like that. Michael’s smile curled up with a sick kind of pleasure.

“Is this why you betrayed me?” Michael wondered. “A hot piece of Five-0 ass? I mean, don’t get me wrong, she’s the kind of girl one of Dad’s paralytic spells would work great on, but family comes before your piece on the side.”

Kono fought past the disgust roiling through her and kept her gun steadily trained on Michael. “He’s doing the right thing,” she said. “You can, too.” She knew it was a long-shot, but she had to try. With the gun on her and a lack of a clear shot for Chin and Steve, Adam was going to have to kill his brother and no matter the complicated relationship between them, it wasn’t something that she wanted Adam to have to carry unless it was completely necessary.

“My brother has never fully understood the power he holds,” Michael said. “We’re going to take this island for our own and reinvent it.”

“And kill millions in the process,” Danny pointed out, like it was a casual fact that he was just spitting out.

“I’m not interested in letting the weak survive.”

Kono kept one eye on Adam the whole time, watching how he was slowly working his hand to the weapon concealed under his shirt. With Michael so close, it should be clean, but Michael’s gun was still a dangerous factor.

“Didn’t you ever wonder why I’m the more powerful of the two of us?” Adam demanded. “Why I’m the one who can cast these spells? I have respect for the island. I have respect for its people and you’re forcing me to twist it into something wicked and self-serving. And for what? More money to line the family’s pockets,” he said bitterly, “more land to run your operation out of. Protection from the police. If I finish this spell tonight, you’re killing dozens of people, the families of law enforcement officers, you’re going to bring a storm on Oahu the likes of which is never supposed to happen…”

“I’m going to become a legend,” Michael cut him off, a slightly crazed look in his eyes that told Kono that reason wasn’t going to work. “You think I care what islands I have to drown, in order to do it? If Oahu doesn’t stay stable, then we’ll move to the Big Island.”

“It’s never going to work,” Adam said, shifting his position. The gun was still on Kono, but she could tell that Adam was about to make his move. She gave him a barely perceptible nod, telling him that she was ready. She could feel Danny beside her move into place, getting closer to Michael and Adam, just in case he needed to intervene.

“It’s too bad you don’t get a choice,” Michael replied. “Finish the spell.”

“I’m sorry,” was all Adam said. “I’m making a choice for myself.”  
  
Kono moved out of the gun’s line of fire the minute she saw the glint of sun on a thick hunting blade. Adam dug it into Michael’s spine, holding his brother close as he twisted it, a pained look on his face and tears shining in his eyes as he held him flush against his body, shaking fingers taking the gun and throwing it aside.

They sank to the ground together as one, Adam fumbling to keep the knife in as Michael’s breaths started to become shorter and sharper.

Kono could see Adam mouthing ‘I’m sorry’ again and again, a constant litany begging for forgiveness, but she knew that there was little to no chance of Michael ever offering up an acceptance of the words. The guilt was going to be something that Adam lived with, forever.

Michael drew his last breath, eyes glazing over, and Adam stumbled to his feet slowly. Danny moved to the body (probably to check that Michael was really dead) while Adam tried to find his balance. Kono rushed to his side to help support him up.

“I need to undo everything, all the spells,” Adam said, sounding exhausted. “Stay?” he asked Kono hopefully.

She took his hand and squeezed it firmly to promise that she wasn’t going to leave his side. She held onto his hand through two different incantations, his body nearly giving out on him through the second. By the time he’d finished, the clouds were snapping together catastrophically. They gathered, receding into one large black funnel, until finally, with a deafening clap, they dissipated. The sky turned back to normal, and Kono felt something settle in the air. From their vantage point, she could see the ocean going back to its natural state, and she had the relieved feeling that things were going back to normal.  
Adam mustered up a tired smile and stepped away from Kono, kneeling down beside Michael’s body as he slowly pried the knife out. Danny caught Kono’s eye, giving her a nod to confirm that Michael was well and truly dead.

Kono watched Adam cautiously as he yanked out a cloth and began to clean the blade. It was only then that she noticed that it was treated with something. She heard Lori and Jenna running up the wooden slatted stairs behind them that led to the ridge at the top of Ka’ala.  
  
“What is that?” Kono asked Adam, her gaze still on the knife.

Adam glanced at Lori, like he needed some kind of permission to talk.

“Adam?” Kono asked again, more suspicious than before, acutely aware that this was definitely some kind of witch-related business. “What’s on the knife?”

“It’s ague root,” Lori replied in his stead. Steve and Chin were coming around the path as she reached for the blade to study it, dragging her pinky over it and licking it before giving a nod. She handed it back to Adam, but when she turned back to Five-0, it was Jenna that her gaze went to. “This really isn’t information that’s supposed to get out.”

“Tell them,” Adam insisted. “Just in case.”

“Ague is used in several powerful spells, but applying it to a weapon when ending someone’s life does a very important thing. It prevents witchcraft from resurrecting the body.”

“Like a ghost?” Kono asked warily.

“More like a walking zombie with limited senses. They’re able to walk, talk, but everything is dimmed, like a light on its last flicker ,” Lori said. “Spirits aren’t real, but there is still life after death. It’s the difference between a soul that’s doomed to wander the earth after its dead in spirit and one that has its corporeal form. The latter is one that witches figured out how to use back in the Crusades. We’ve also figured out a way to prevent any witch from casting a spell to bring the dead back for their own nefarious purposes.”  
  
“There is life after death,” Jenna realized, sounding stunned and taken aback.

“Yeah, for the record, if anyone tries to zombify me after I die, I’m eating your brains,” Danny informed them all, pointing at Steve. “Even yours, babe. Don’t even think about it.”

“Would it even be so different?” Steve retorted. “You’d just grumble and moan and shuffle your feet all day instead of just in the morning.”

“Oh, so now my morning routine is under fire?” Danny huffed. “I see how it is, see how you like it next time you wake up and there’s no eggs…”

“It would be perfect, I hate your eggs!”

“Lies, all lies and slander.”

Kono smiled as she watched the two of them start to descend the stairs towards the parking lot. Kono gave Adam a nod, promising that she’d catch up to him later, and when she was sure that he was gone (following Lori and Jenna), Kono leaned back to grab Chin by the sleeve.

“Hey,” she started, figuring even if it was awkward, at least it was a start.

She didn’t think she’d get the image of Michael’s look of betrayal out of her head anytime soon, but worse than that was the devastating heartbreak in Adam’s eyes as he lost his closest family. It had made her feel instantly small and petty for keeping her grudge with Chin going when there was absolutely no reason to.

Chin gave her an even smile, waiting for her to say something else.

“I’m sorry that I went behind your back to meet with Adam,” she started. “ _But_ , I also need to know that you trust me to take care of myself. It’s important to me, Chin. I know you’re this big bad vampire, now, and I’m gonna die before you and yeah, I’m probably going to get hurt along the way, but that’s fine. I need you to promise to lay off the protective thing.”

“You’re my little cousin,” Chin said. “It’s always going to be hard not to wrap you up in cotton.”

“Chin,” Kono pleaded, giving him a desperate look.

“But I’ve seen you handle yourself. All this that’s happened to us, this supernatural life that’s been forced on me, it’s made some things harder for me. And you’re right. I do worry about you because you’re human and now I’m not, but that’s only because I can protect you. I guess I should’ve paid attention to the part where I should only be protecting you when you ask for help.”

“Trust me, there will totally come a day when I need your fangs,” Kono promised. “It’s just not every day and it’s not for every minor thing. I can still handle myself, cuz. Okay?”

Chin managed a smile, even though he still looked like he could keep arguing, but then again, he’d always been protective of her, even when she was little.

“I don’t want us to drift apart,” Kono kept going. “And I don’t want us to be fighting all the time. So, if you’re good to put this behind us, I am too.”

That seemed to be the right thing to say because Chin thawed for the first time in ages, smiling warmly as he tugged Kono into a tight embrace. It was cool given the lack of body warmth he had to provide, but it was also everything she needed right now. She held on tightly, burying her face in his neck.

“Adam Noshimuri, huh?” Chin finally said.

“What?”

“Of all the people you had to develop a crush on, you picked him.”

“Chin, you need to shut up.”

“This is family, cuz,” Chin said with a smirk. “If I can’t protect you every single minute of the day, you’d better accept that I’m gonna tease you.”

She shook her head wryly as they began their descent down the mountain, knowing that she wouldn’t want it any other way.

* * *

After the fight, the team had taken a very long, very needed rest on Steve’s orders. While Danny and Steve were recuperating physically, the others needed just as much time. Chin and Kono were continuing to mend their bridges and Lori was packing up to head back to the mainland. Jenna’s mind, however, was occupied with the blade dipped in ague and the reason for it. She had abandoned all plans for rest once she’d realized that this wouldn’t leave her alone.

She’d spent so long looking for proof of the afterlife in the spiritual world. She had never thought that it might require a helping hand from the living.

The island had finally calmed down from the near-hysterical state it had worked itself into. Jenna didn’t blame people for acting like they’d been on the cusp of nuclear war, but now that things had gone back to normal, it had left a need to do _something_ in some people. While everyone else was resting and getting their well-deserved break, Jenna had broken open her files again. She was going over everything because if people could come back from the dead (even in a half-there state) with a great deal of talent and luck, then her research was sorely out of date and needed more updating.  
  
“You know, you were included when I said everyone got the week off.”

Jenna nearly jumped out of her seat, flushing red when she found Steve staring at her from the office door. “I could say the same to you,” was what she fired back with, when her heart stopped racing.

Steve headed to the table and picked up the cell phone that had been lying there, waving it around. “Danny needed this. There was a rant about how it had all the most important aspects of his life on it and a few things that could be used to blackmail me, so I bowed to Danny’s wishes. As usual,” he said. “What are you doing with all your files? You deserve some time off.”

“This is what I enjoy doing,” Jenna said quietly. “I’ve always wanted to learn more about the way the supernatural interacts now that everyone is so openly communicative about it.” She shrugged, staring down at the files sadly. “Ever since my fiancé was taken from me, I spent all my time searching for ghosts. I’d just come around to accepting that they weren’t real and now…”

“Now there’s a whole new can of worms that have been opened?” Steve guessed. “Yeah. I get that.”

She could only imagine that he was thinking about his father. While she hadn’t heard the full story, she’d eavesdropped enough to know that something was going on with Steve and his mother. If anyone could give him answers, she suspected it would be his late father.

“I mean, it’s not like it sounds very easy,” she pointed out. “You need a mega-powerful witch, the right ingredients, the corpse, and the right time of year from what Adam and Lori were talking about on the way back here. It’s no wonder we’re not littered with the undead or spirits or whatever you want to call them. At the same time, though…”

At the same time, Jenna knew that it meant that it could be done. She knew that it wasn’t something she wanted for herself, but the leagues of understanding that was going on behind closed doors and wasn’t available to the supernatural community at large astounded her. There were books that could be written about this and more theory than she could even contemplate.

It would take several covens’ permission to allow their secrets to the larger community, but Jenna thought it would really make a difference if something terrible ever happened. It wasn’t that she wanted to introduce the idea to the wrong people, but arming people with information in case it happened sounded like a good idea to her.

It sounded like the perfect task for her, but she hadn’t managed to get around to asking if she could be the one to bridge the information gap between the covens and the rest of the world.

“Jenna?” Steve prodded.

“I think I may need to hand in my resignation,” Jenna admitted.

“Did I miss it?” came a voice from the door. Jenna felt awash with panic to have been overheard, that feeling only doubling when she saw Lori standing at the door with her suitcase in hand. “Max said it’d be tight, but he promised I’d get here in time.”

“In time for what?” Jenna asked warily.

“Your resignation.”

“That seems like kind of a mean thing to want to witness,” Jenna said, a little unsure about how she was feeling about this. Sure, she still wanted to quit, but at the same time, she didn’t really think that she wanted anyone to take weird joy from it.

Lori shared a wry smile with Steve, who gave her an amused look in return.

“Please don’t tell me you’re conspiring to fire me,” Jenna begged, because that definitely wouldn’t look good on a resume.

“The opposite, actually,” Steve said. “Jenna, Lori has something she’d like to suggest.”

“Commander McGarrett has been very thorough when it comes to recommending you and he’s showed me just a glance at some of your research. He also mentioned that your side interest in the afterlife hasn’t diminished since you arrived here only to come up empty handed. I’m not sure whether you’d be interested in actually learning the art of the occult, but we do often open spots in our coven to non-practicing members of the population with specific skill-sets.”

Jenna stared at Lori warily, trying to boil this down to the simplest possible explanation.

Lori did the work for her. “I’m offering you a job.”

“In your coven?” Jenna clarified, because she was still a little unsure about all of this. She’d never really been interested in practicing, but Lori was making it sound like she wouldn’t have to. In fact she was making it sound like they were going to open the doors of knowledge to her. “What kind of library do you have?”

“Well, imagine the National Archive,” Lori said. “And then, think basement.”

“What, so it’s as big as that?”

“No,” Lori replied patiently, a coy smile on her lips. “Our library is _in_ the National Archive’s basement.”

Before Jenna had come to Oahu, she had pored through letters and histories in that building, never knowing that what she really wanted was just a floor below. The thought of it was almost too amazing to believe, but at the same time, she was just grateful to be getting the offer now. There was so much to think about, though, and her mind went a mile a minute.

“Is this normal?” Lori asked Steve, when Jenna went completely still.

“She’s working the problem,” Steve promised, a fond smile on his face. “Jenna,” he prodded. “Tell Lori what you want to say.”

“Yes,” Jenna blurted out, before the offer could be rescinded. “Yes, oh my god, yes, I’m absolutely in. I mean, I’ll need to sell my place here and figure things out. Do I need to be initiated to join a coven?”

“We’ll just have to make sure your security clearance is good to go,” Lori said, clearly amused by Jenna’s panic.

Nothing this big had happened to her outside of joining Five-0 and the idea that she was going to make strides in research that _no one_ had really ever done made her want to jump for joy. It was only when she glanced at Steve that she was tempered with reality and all the things she was going to miss came crashing down.

Her face fell and she gave Steve a sad look. “Only, I’m going to miss you guys,” she said.

“And we’ll miss you right back. You can’t ignore an opportunity like this,” he warned. “I promise, I’ll visit. I’m from right around that neck of the woods. You might get tired of seeing me,” he said. Steve had never talked about going back to Virginia before and something was definitely going on, but Jenna had her own news to focus on.

She was going to DC.

She was joining a coven.

And she definitely knew which one of those two pieces of news she was going to lead with when calling her mother that evening.

* * *

Danny set a new batch of drinks on the gazebo’s table to go with the food they’d brought in. Kamekona had _insisted_ on catering, only to stick them with a fifty-percent discount, but Danny had already ordered enough pizzas to keep everyone fed, so their small going-away party had quickly expanded for fear that they were about to waste a great deal of food.

He passed by Grace and Rachel on the beach, tweaking Grace’s pigtails with a smile, and giving her a light touch on the back. “Hey, wanna go show off your new surfing skills to Kono?” he suggested.

Grace chewed her lower lip, clearly not sure she wanted to move from her space, but a firm look from Rachel got her up and moving. She seemed to lose her wariness pretty quickly, because she went tearing after Steve, who was roaming the beach in his wolf form to try and burn off some of his heightened wolf senses without freaking people out while in human form.

“Do you want to talk about your mother-in-law?” Rachel asked from below the brim of her unnecessarily large hat.

Danny dropped into the chair beside her, holding the neck of his beer tightly. He’d been alive for hundreds of years and there were still scores of things that he didn’t understand in the world. Fae were, unfortunately, one of the big ones. Worse than not understanding them, he often actively feared them.

“What do I need to know about half-fae,” he said instead, skipping over the part where he was definitely worried about Steve’s mother tearing into town and causing chaos, especially on the immortal shacking up with her kid. “I mean, we’re not even talking about how the wolf part is gonna factor into this and then the fact that he mated with me. I swear to god, if we’re some ticking time bomb that’s going to go off, you need to warn me so I can get a head start running away,” Danny joked weakly.

He watched Steve in his wolf form fondly; the way he sniffed at the waves like they confounded him and the way he gently let Grace pet his ears. Danny even softened at the way he huffed and snarled when Kono mocked him for it. God help him, he was getting fuzzy over Steve’s wolf form. Danny had always known this bond was bad news.

“Do you want the truth?”

“You always tell me the truth. You like being blunt,” Danny accused.

“Yes, but I want to make sure you want to hear it this time,” Rachel said, sipping on her ridiculously fruity drink that Steve had probably made for her to make sure his guests were being treated well.  
Danny grumbled, but eventually waved his hand to give her the permission she was after.

Rachel gave him a long, sympathetic look. “You want to know what I know about half-fae? I have no idea.”

Come again? “Wait. What?” Rachel was the oldest immortal he’d ever met. She’d seen every conceivable thing in her very, very, very long lifetime. How the hell could she never have met a half-wolf, half-fae before? “Rachel, this isn’t funny.”

“No, you’re right,” she agreed. “I’m afraid you and Steve are going to have to navigate this one from scratch.” She lifted her now-empty glass, shaking it so the ice cubes clinked against the glass. “And now you’re going to be an excellent ex-husband and refill this, aren’t you?”

“I’d refill it a lot faster if you had some answers for me,” he muttered, but still took her glass and headed into the kitchen where Steve kept all the good stuff hiding.

It looked like he wasn’t the only one with the idea to sneak the good stuff, though. Jenna was bent over the liquor cabinet, peering through the bottles. Danny smirked as he lingered there for a moment, waiting for the perfect opportunity before he set the glass down with a firm _clink_ against the counter, making Jenna jump at least six inches into the air.

“You scared me to death,” she protested. “But you can help me. Where does Steve keep the champagne? Kono sent me to find it.”

Danny pointed inside the cabinet to where a decently old bottle was being kept. When Danny had moved into the house, he’d brought everything from his storage locker. That included, but wasn’t limited to: a few old masters’ paintings he’d picked up, a few old plays (signed by Will S. himself), several incredibly old wines, a few folios of sheet music that’d fetch an amazing price, and a crate of decent champagne from his time in France.

He still fondly remembered watching Steve freak out about pretty much all of it, despite having been alive when most of it had been made.

“Yeah, well, you had Europe’s culture to rifle through,” Steve had said defensively. “And I was a new werewolf at the time. What was I going to do, terrify the founding fathers into giving me something?”

Jenna reached in to pry a bottle of champagne out, offering Danny an appreciative smile. “You don’t mind, right?” she asked warily.

“It’s your going-away party,” he pointed out. “I mean, it’s a thank you party for Lori for the help and a thank you to Rachel for giving us the tips we needed to avoid Steve dying and yeah, okay, so I’m a little mean and it’s a celebration party for Steve for getting through his first heat, but it’s mostly your party,” he concluded. “We’re gonna miss you.”

“I’m still coming to grips with the fact I’m going back to the mainland,” Jenna admitted. “I know it’s only been a little over a year, but it’s felt like a lot longer. You guys were really good about welcoming me in,” she said. “I’m not going to forget that.”

Danny gestured for Jenna to come closer, hugging her tightly once she stepped into his reach. “You know we’re only a phone call away, right? And that Steve’s been dying for a reason to get back to the old stomping grounds.”

“He mentioned as much,” Jenna said.

“Did he?” Danny replied, keeping a warm smile on his face to avoid the fact that he and Steve had been hinting around this issue, but hadn’t made a decision. This was a much bigger conversation and it was _interesting_ that he was apparently having it with other people. “See? Even Steve can’t leave well enough alone. And you know me. I just follow wherever the fearless leader goes or I get icy heartburn pain from the mating bond.”

“I think they invented Pepto for that,” she teased.

Danny gave her an unamused look as he dug out some of the plastic glasses they kept on hand, thrusting them at Jenna. “Take these. Wait for me before you pop the thing,” he said, keeping up the smile as he watched her go so he could keep hiding the uncertainty lurking just beneath the surface.

He still wasn’t entirely sure how he felt about her joining up with Lori’s coven. It probably was an amazing opportunity for her to learn and study, but there were a few covens he’d had bad dealings with over the years and usually, non-practitioners didn’t fare so well among witches. Then again, he also couldn’t see Lori letting anyone push Jenna around, so maybe this would turn out for the best.

He piled his arms with back-up supplies of napkins and cups, but stopped when he caught Kono staring at her phone distractedly in the little nook off the kitchen.

“Now,” he started, “if I were Chin Ho Kelly, I might absently comment that you look like you’re talking to a _boy_. I mean, that or your vision’s really starting to slip seeing as you didn’t even see me coming, in which case I don’t want you anywhere near me with a rifle.”

She cocked her head to the side. “I can still shoot a cork from off your head at ten feet,” she said. “Want me to prove it?”

“Nah, let’s stay away from the head,” he confirmed, having no doubt that she could do it, but could also give him a knick he’d remember forever just to get him to shut up. “So, I’m gonna take a stab in the dark, given what Chin’s been telling me, but if I’m right, no stabbing? I mean, I wouldn’t mind getting that guarantee if I’m wrong, either.” He gestured to the phone. “Adam?”

Kono did something that he’d never physically seen before in his life.

She _blushed_.

“Okay, so now I know it’s either serious or you’re getting sick.”

“Shut up,” she teased affectionately. “It’s not serious, but I like him. Sure, he’s a witch without a coven trying to find his way while fixing his father’s corrupt business, but he’s brave and he did the right thing…”

“And cute,” Danny interrupted. “Don’t forget about the cute.”

“How could I ever forget about the cute?” she agreed with a laugh. “Yes, okay, I think he’s hot. And he’s a good guy and we’ve been talking.”

Danny leaned up against the counter, beyond pleased that Kono was finally seeking interests outside her job. For a while, he’d been worried that she’d let work consume her to the point that there was nothing else she focused on, but it looked like she was finally realizing that there was more to life than bagging bad guys. At least, a little bit more – there was absolutely nothing wrong with putting crooks behind bars.

“Do I get to properly vet him, since I missed the first time, being out of commission?”

“Is that what you’re calling it?” Kono asked wryly. “Because Jenna and I were talking and we like ‘fuck-week’ better.”

“You’re both disgusting and immature people,” Danny confirmed.

“But is it untrue?”

Danny raised his brow, but pointedly said nothing about whether Kono had a point or not. After all, he needed to keep some mystery in his life. He was quickly losing any hint that he was actually a force to be reckoned with – and he was; a dangerous, deadly force. He really needed to win another battle in front of them, before they started to call him adorable.

“Why are we talking about my sad non-marriage?” Danny demanded. “I want to know about your new relationship.”

“With Adam?” Kono asked. “Danny, it’s not even started. We haven’t seen each other since everything happened. He’s been through a really rough time and I don’t want to push.” She was smiling sadly as she spoke about it, which was a pretty good sign as far as Danny was concerned. It seemed that that she definitely wanted to be the one to help him through it. “But I think we’re starting to make progress.”

“Yeah?” Danny coaxed, trying to lean over and peek at the text messages on her phone, but Kono eased away before Danny could get too close.

She smacked him lightly on the shoulder. “We’re going to go out for coffee,” she confirmed. “And we’ve promised not to talk about work or his family or anything potentially dangerous. We’re also going to officially call it a date,” she reported, grinning and looking to Danny like a young girl in love.

Then again, everyone was young to Danny. That sort of thing happened when you were about to hit the big four-five-zero within the next century.  
  
“And when is this happening?”

Kono turned her wrist so she could glance at her watch, giving Danny a slightly guilty look. “Actually, he’s coming to pick me up in about fifteen minutes,” she said. “I already said goodbye to Jenna and Lori,” she said quickly. “I promised I’d write, but I want to sneak out of here while everyone’s too busy to make fun of me, but you managed to find me,” she accused. “I would’ve gotten away with it, if it wasn’t for you pesky immortals,” she joked.

“Promise me you’ll keep your phone on,” Danny said, giving her a serious look. “I know he’s a decent guy and I do trust him, but there’s a lot of firepower gunning for him on the island right now, not just because of his connections, but because of his skill.”

“I know,” Kono said, the worry softly echoing in her words. “And I’ve got a gun and some pretty accurate aim.”

“Just remember you’ve got a wolf, a sword, and fangs on your side,” Danny said. “Plus, I mean, I guess Max could look at your future and tell you whether you made the right decision ordering the salmon,” he added with a smirk, grateful to get Kono smiling again. “Go on, get out of here. I’ll let Steve know where you got to whenever he’s finally out of wolf form.”

Kono leaned in to press a grateful kiss to Danny’s cheek, but lingered at the front door before fully leaving. “He’s okay, right?” she asked. “I know he plays it pretty close to the vest, but you’d tell us if something was going on. I mean, I guess past the news about his mother.”

“I think we all need time to process that news,” Danny admitted, still reeling himself. “We’ll cope. We’ve got Jenna going to DC, so hopefully that’ll turn into a decent resource, but I think we both want to wait until she’s unpacked her bags and settled into the coven before we start asking for personal favors.” After all, it’d be sort of guilt-inducing if they were the reason Jenna got in trouble. “Go, get out of here, go meet Adam and forget about us ancient bores.”

“Stay out of trouble,” she warned, grabbing her clutch and waving as she left.

Danny locked the door behind her and took his time before heading back out to the beach. He stopped to greet Max and Chin under the palm fronds, making sure they had enough to drink and said hello to Kamekona (who was in the middle of a discussion about the best types of shrimp with Grace, who seemed to be enjoying the discourse) and left Lori and Jenna to their in-depth debate (which he thought was about the merits of an all-supernatural swimsuit calendar, but maybe his hearing was off).

Finally, with everyone tended to, Danny crossed the beach to sit down next to where Steve was curled up in a ball atop a checkered blanket, eyes half-lidded. Danny knew the feeling. Even though the heat was over, he still caught himself in the midst of exhaustion. Beyond that, there was the ever-present worry over Rachel’s revelation to deal with.

Danny tangled his fingers up in Steve’s fur, smiling wryly at him. “C’mon, babe,” he coaxed. “You can’t hide like this forever. You know we need to talk.”

Steve let out a huff, but shifted back, accepting the pair of swim trunks that Danny gave him and using him as a cover to protect the tiny shred of modesty he barely held onto, most days. Hell, Danny was pretty sure that if it weren’t for Grace’s young eyes, Steve would have no problem stripping down to nothing in front of all his friends and coworkers.

Once the swimming trunks were securely on, Steve settled back on the blanket, sitting cross-legged within reaching distance of Danny.

“You have to talk sometime,” Danny said to the wordless glare he was getting from Steve. “Look, Kono’s not gonna tell anyone, but I still think you should talk to the rest of the team about this. Or just talk to me about it more,” he coaxed. “Steve, I love you, but all of this kind of scares me at the same time.”

“You think I’m not freaked out?” Steve demanded.

“Yeah, of course you are. I mean, you’re part-fae and you’ve just found out after hundreds of years, but I kind of feel like we need a plan here. Hell, I just need to know what you plan to do,” he pointed out. “I mean, if nothing else, I’m pretty sure you should be talking to the Governor about this. Find out if she already knows or just go in for fairy tricks and tips 101.”

There was an unsure flicker across Steve’s face that Danny didn’t need to be mated to Steve, to understand.

“You think she knows something about your mother, huh?”

“What if she’s been lying to me this whole time?” Steve asked, his voice slightly rough with anger and other deeper-seated emotion. “What if they know each other? What if I’m only where I am today because of my mother?”

“You know what I heard a lot of? A lot of ‘if’s,” Danny said. “Look, I’m the worst person to talk to about grudges seeing as I’ve hunted a couple people across decades, never mind countries, but I think that you’ve got an expert on the island who can help you out with all the stuff you’re dealing with. She’ll know more than Rachel does about how to cope with the half-breed stuff. Hell, she might even be able to give you a way to tap into your abilities. Just think, no more getting up for the remote.”

“I don’t really think telekinesis to benefit your laziness is something the fae are willing to use abilities for,” Steve lectured as if he was already a part of the community and knew better, when really he was avoiding it as much as he possibly could. “Danny, this is a lot to take in.”

“I know,” Danny agreed, trying to be gentle and lead Steve through this with support, because he knew he could be an impatient asshole sometimes. “Look, I don’t like to see you struggling and when there’s someone around who can give you answers, I think you should take advantage of that.” He waited a beat and took a deep breath. “That said, this is your life. So what do you want to do?”

Steve stared out at the waves, which were now lapping the shore normally, and then turned his gaze upwards to the perfectly blue sky. Danny had to practically sit on his hands to stop himself from poking and prodding, but eventually Steve turned his attention back to Danny.

“Truth?”

“Yeah. Always,” Danny agreed.

“I want to go back to the mainland for a while,” he admitted. “I don’t want to spend time with the Governor or waste my weeks with history lessons. I want to go back to the old house and try to track down my mother. I want real answers,” he said, with the look of determination on his face that Danny knew meant that he was going to stop at absolutely nothing until he got it.

Besides, it wouldn’t be so bad to get to pop back into Jersey for a while. And they both had more than enough vacation time kicking around.

“What if we don’t find anything?” Danny felt compelled to at least bring up that possibility.

“I have to try,” Steve said. “She’s my mother and she’s still out there, as far as anyone knows.”

Danny couldn’t even remember his birth family anymore. They were miles and miles of memory away, buried underneath centuries of experiences. He’d made his own families over the years and still made time for them when he could. Steve had done the same for himself with Five-0 and while they were Danny’s family too, Steve still had a biological link with Mary. They shared a history and a lineage.

This was Steve’s opportunity to find someone else who understood those things and could better explain how they’d been shaped.

“You know I’m there for you,” Danny said with a shrug, not sure whether Steve would ever doubt him (and knowing Steve, he had already packed them both bags, had flight tickets, and a rental car waiting for them in Virginia). “How about we wait a little until things calm down though, huh? I mean, I want to tease Kono before her new relationship becomes old news.”

“What new relationship is this?”

Danny’s face lit up with actual glee. “That’s right. You’ve been too wolfy to actually know. Although I’m a little worried about your detective skills if you didn’t pick up on the fact that Kono has a major crush on Adam.”

“Noshimuri?” Steve asked, narrowing his eyes like somehow he didn’t approve.

“Do you know another Adam? She just snuck out of here for a date,” Danny gleefully shared, feeling happy that someone else’s life was at least calm and going somewhat in the right direction. “I’m pretty sure Chin’s still coming to grips with his little cousin potentially dating an ex-Yakuza witchy powerhouse.”

“Huh,” was all Steve said. “He’s probably searching for connections, what with having lost his coven and…”

“Or he just likes her,” Danny cut Steve off before he could go applying logic to the situation instead of letting two people just be romantically interested in each other. “Steve, please, be romantic.”

Steve still looked like he wanted to run a credit check and investigate Adam, but it also seemed like it was less important than investigating his own family. He relented, the tension from his shoulders bleeding out when Danny reached over to squeeze at them, before giving his neck a massage to ease some of the tension.

“We should stop in California on the way back,” Danny said. “You can tell your sister the news in person. This really isn’t the kind of thing she should be hearing over the phone. Besides, I know you’ve probably already started to think about the flight itinerary in your head.”

He took a moment to look around at the people who’d joined them. It’d be quiet, soon, with Jenna and Lori leaving, but there was still no lack of warmth. All these people were here for them, and would still be here when they came back. Strange, how Danny found himself actively wanting to come back to the island after so many years of stubbornly hating it.

“It’ll all be fine,” he promised Steve, even if he couldn’t be entirely sure of that. He cupped Steve’s cheek and leaned in to give him a calming kiss, feeling it through the bond and feeling immensely grateful for how secure and stable they were. “If your mother’s out there, we’re gonna find her, Steve.”

“Yeah,” Steve agreed, but his forehead was pinched like he wasn’t sure it was a good thing.

“Hey, even if she turns out to be one of those faes kids have nightmares about, you’ve still got me,” Danny felt inclined to remind Steve. “And you know that despite my very justified fears of the fae, I’m more than willing to fight your mother to protect your honor.”

Even though Steve smiled just slightly in return, Danny knew that he’d managed to get him to calm down from the neurotic thoughts that were probably plaguing his mind. Steve had that problem where he couldn’t be a normal person and instead had to let his obsessions nearly overwhelm him. He leaned in to scent Danny, taking long sniffs the way he only did when he had to keep himself calm.

“We’ll be fine,” Danny promised, tangling his fingers into Steve’s hair as he reclined on the towel. He stared out at the perfectly normal horizon. “When aren’t we?”

Steve opened his mouth to give off any number of examples (like the smart-ass he was), so Danny was forced to kiss him so hard that he forgot not only what he was going to say, but also that they were surrounded by people.

It was a hard task and a harder life, but someone had to do it.

And there was no way in hell that Danny was letting anyone destroy his near-perfect life, now that he had it the way he wanted it after years of struggle and hard work. It was the kind of life he’d fought for and the kind of happiness you didn’t let go of so easily. He had the partner he needed and a place in the world.

No matter what came at them, Danny would lay down his life to protect it.


End file.
